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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24340612">Uncharted territories</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/AFairyWithAWand/pseuds/AFairyWithAWand'>AFairyWithAWand</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Southern Vampire Mysteries - Charlaine Harris</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 06:14:30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>50</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>179,010</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24340612</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/AFairyWithAWand/pseuds/AFairyWithAWand</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Mrs Harris left us with Sookie (unconvincingly) dating Sam, Eric slaved to Freyda, Pamela as new sheriff of Area Five, Karin as Sookie's bodyguard and a lot of mess around them all. This story takes Sookie and Eric to their different uncharted territories (Louisiana, Faery, Oklahoma) and tells their struggles to find their place in there, maybe with some happiness. Years go by and we see both coping with their losses to build a new life. They eventually meet again but nothing is a given, therefore they have to understand what they want and how to reach it. Some new characters will help or hinder them. Some old characters get weight and more nuances (namely, Cataliades and the Ancient One).<br/></p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Freyda/Eric Northman, Sookie/Eric, Sookie/OC</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>112</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>A/N (warning, it’s longer that I anticipated, sorry)<br/>I read the first four books, then relied heavily on online books’ recaps. Therefore, as much as I wanted to keep what the original author did write and to take from there on, sometimes I do not recall precisely what happened in the books.<br/>The following facts are the starting points of my story:<br/>-Eric left for Oklahoma to marry Freyda (200 years contract);<br/>-Sookie was part-owner of Merlotte’s, had sex (once) with Sam after Eric left, but it was not a relationship;<br/>-Pam was appointed sheriff of Area Five;<br/>-Karin was to guard Sookie for one year;<br/>-Nevada promised to protect Sookie without interference in her life, Freyda promised not to attempt anything against Sookie, both for the remaining of her (Sookie’s) life;<br/>-Sookie could not: go to Oklahoma or to Fangtasia, contact Eric;<br/>-Sookie/Tara relationship was strained;<br/>-Sookie/Amelia relationship was strained;<br/>-Faery/Earth portals were closed;<br/>-all those cameos, in the last book, about many of Sookie’s friends resurfacing just to say hello I miss you I wish you well are NOT considered.<br/>The story begins one year after Eric’s departure for OK (it should be summer 2013, but dates are not really important).</p>
<p>PS-if you need to know more, check in my profile for more specifications about this story</p>
<p>WARNING: as a guest reader complained about a choice I made about the plot, I wanted to warn all those would-be readers who don't like violence (included rape), sex, religion twisting, death of some almost-major characters, some low level profanity (just a wisp, I'd say), that it's better for them NOT TO READ this story. <br/>I rated this story M for all these characteristics and don't want to surprise anyone with undelicate topics.</p>
<p>I didn't even intend to bother anyone with my grammar/synthax mistakes BUT, my two beta-readers left me quite abruptly and the work has not been edited by third parties. I'm the only responsible for all the mistakes (missing pronouns, misspelling, fancy tenses, wrong choice of words, you name it). For this I'm really ashamed and beg your pardon.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p>Pamela watched her hands looking at the colour of her perfectly manicured nails: a dark crimson. That evening, a brief pause at the beautician had not given her the needed respite from the burden her life had become since Eric’s departure. The problem was not being sheriff of Area Five, nor running Fangtasia on her own or taking care of Sookie’s security. The issue was Eric and his absence. His blank face the day he had left for Oklahoma was still itching in her memory like a festering wound on a limb. And his lack of words was a pain in its own right.</p>
<p>Karin the Slaughterer did not knock before entering Pamela’s office at Fangtasia, and did not greet her sister before sitting on a chair in front of her desk. The loud songs coming from the music hall ceased abruptly as the door closed. Pamela watched the lithe blond vampiress across the desk and smiled thinly thinking how similar they were physically, yet so different in character.</p>
<p>“Karin,” Pamela looked at her lifting briefly her gaze from the laptop screen, “good news?”</p>
<p>“Excellent, indeed: the human has finally understood that she can shape only her present and future, enrolled for another semester at the college, went out with a few friends and now is fucking a male on her living room’s rug.”</p>
<p>Pamela lifted an eyebrow and waited.</p>
<p>“That would have been better… she’s so stubborn…”</p>
<p>“Yes, she is… very repetitive in her behaviour.” Pamela closed the laptop and observed her sister more closely. “You are worried for the breather.”</p>
<p>“One year, one fucking year is gone and she is still crying and avoiding to make a decision.”</p>
<p>“Yes, very humanlike, isn’t it?” said the sheriff with a jaded look. It was not the first time her sister dropped by her office to complain about her charge.</p>
<p>“Very destructive, I’d say,” Karin’s deadpan face was at odds with her words, “she can’t continue this way, it’s pointless and… boring.”</p>
<p>“Boring? That’s a new feature, Sookie’s never been boring.”</p>
<p>“This week she cried and did not sleep most nights, missed two classes, Monday and Thursday, forgot to eat a couple of days and did not sunbath although some days were very pleasant, I was told.” Karin knew to be whining as a boring child herself. </p>
<p>“And you are stalling too, Karin,” said Pamela, “a year is gone and your contract is expired: you don’t need to stay…”</p>
<p>“She is not well yet,” Karin crossed her legs gracefully and continued. “Everybody thought that one year would have been enough, no?”</p>
<p>“I don’t know what Eric had in mind when asked your services for one year, but I’d say he was so messed up that he did not really think anything coherent.”</p>
<p>“What do you mean?” asked Karin not sure to be willing to hear the answer. Surely, not a detailed one.</p>
<p>“Karin, I told you what happened those months. It was all so fucked up here… Victor Madden, Freyda, Ocella, Alexiei… Eric was not well and did not behave… like his usual self, that’s it,”snapped Pamela hastily. “Wehad all been very… stressed and tired for many months. Since the takeover really.” The phone rang, a red light on the display showing that the call was from the bar terminal. “It’s very very important, right?” barked Pamela coldly.</p>
<p>The voice from the other side was tense and loud, to cover the noise of music and patrons. “Sheriff, the Regent was pissed off that your personal phone has been off for more than an hour and ordered to be called back as soon as…” Pamela cut the communication and dialled a number, at once emptying her face and coughing to clear her throat. On the third ring a voice answered. “Mmh.”</p>
<p>“Sheriff Ravenscroft,” Pamela’s voice was flat and colourless, “I’m sorry my mobile needs a new battery. What can I do for you, Regent?”</p>
<p>“Your job, blondie. I’m waiting your quarterly reports on Areas Five andFour.”</p>
<p>Pamela opened the laptop and smiled dryly. “M’me, I was just working on them, you know there have been some problems with some businesses, the IRS and some banks, I am still waiting for some figures. Rest assured that you will have them on your screen as soon as the officials give their statements.” She paused, then continued in a mellow tone. “Unless you want them now, and I will correct the relevant parts when…”</p>
<p>The Regent’s annoyed voice changed frequency and quivered superficially. “Yes… no, fine. Let’s wait till those <em>humans</em> finish their <em>work</em>, worms!”</p>
<p>Karin watched as her sister’s smile died along with the call. “What was all the fuss about?”</p>
<p>“The Regent is a pain in the ass, but really she inherited a bad set of cards from Madden. His businesses, those he opened in his king’s name to mess up with our area, are money pits and had a lot of problems with human authorities too. And now, she is answering to Nevada for the poor state of areas One and Two, those directly administered by Madden and now by herself. She is not up to the task or her agenda is dangerously similar to that of the late Victor, I haven’t yet understood her.” The sheriff typed quickly on the keyboard, then leant on the headrest closing her eyes. “Plus, now she is pressed by the king (or her agenda’s third parties) and is anxious, nervous… she’s trying to take her frustration out on me, and I don’t want to solve her problems with Nevada or others, you see…”</p>
<p>“Ah, yes, you pretend to scuttle hurriedly at her order but…”</p>
<p>“IRS and banks are problems only for the king’s companies and those activities that do not pay tithes to me… as for our subjects’ businesses, Eric and I found a way to decrease their taxable value, which is the same amount our levies are imposed on…”</p>
<p>“It’s a dangerous path, Pam,” commented her sister. </p>
<p>“Yes, but only if a king employed young accountants and auditors, well versed in technology and telematic procedures. But old kings do not trust mere humans with vampire politics, so they charge old vampires to check tithes and businesses. And old vampires are suspicious but unable to understand how the human world changed in the last fifty years.”</p>
<p>“Still dangerous. And what do you gain…?”</p>
<p>“This king won’t last… long, and I’ll need my subjects’ fealty, and their prosperous businesses to…”, the sheriff’s voice trailed off while her eyebrows arched tellingly.</p>
<p>“You spent too many years with our maker,” said Karin reproachfully.</p>
<p>“And you should have spent some more time with him, was it so hard?”</p>
<p>“When he needs me I will always come, you know that.” Karin’s eyes explored the office’s sober furnishings. “You haven’t even changed his furniture! You live in his shadow…”</p>
<p>“I share much of his opinions, but not all. If you cared to stay with us you would have learned the freedom he cherishes so much, and his honour in never taking it away from you.”</p>
<p>“Oh, yes, I see where it got him his honour,” Karin sprang on her feet and bent over the desk to face her sister composed features. “He’s been whored out by that scum of his maker! I should have killed that sadisticshit decades ago, without waiting for his permission.” Tears struck her delicate face, her eyes full of pain and fury.</p>
<p>Pamela stood up, surprised by her sister’s show of emotion. Karin’s light frame contrasted with her words and the strength emanating from her voice.</p>
<p>“Is that why you left him?” Pamela asked after a lengthy pause.</p>
<p>Karin closed her eyes and nodded. “Yes. I couldn’t stand anymore to see him humiliated and suffering because he had the disgrace to meet that vile faggot early in his human life.” The vampiress called the Slaughterer turned her back to Pamela, and moved toward the door. “I so wanted to kill him, but I made the mistake to tell Eric so, almost asking his permission… He asked me not to… and I love him, I did not want to go against him.”</p>
<p>“Eric never told me exactly what his maker did to him… I never truly understood till I met him here…”</p>
<p>“Eric is very protective of you, maybe too much. I guess he sent you away when Ocella came around, right?”</p>
<p>“The first time happened a century ago, more or less, and yes, he sent me away when he felt him approaching… he called me a few months after.He wouldn’t tell me anything, and I dared not to insist. This time he could not send me far, but he always found something for me to do elsewhere when Ocella and the boy came.”</p>
<p>“Yes, that’s Eric,” muttered Karin</p>
<p>“What did…?” Pamela stood still behind the desk, fists clasped as if expecting a physical blow.</p>
<p>“What did Ocella do? You mean beyond raping and torturing him and letting others do the same?” Karin turned to lock eyes with her sister. “The more brutal and sadistic torment he inflicted, the one that broke our maker over and over, was taking any hope to end those tortures, those humiliations away from him. He made Eric live with the fear (and the certainty) to meet him again and to lose his freedom, his integrity, his sanity once again. You understand, Pam? He lived centuries knowing he could lose everything all over.” The last phrase was yelled among tears, then Karin dropped over the sofa with an unusual clumsy move and carried on in a level tone. “Eric is very strong and resilient. That’s what infuriated Ocella: Eric broke only temporally, then regained his strength and his love for life. And never became like his maker: Ocella remained always the model to despise and to avoid, and Ocella knew it. That’s why he resurfaced in Eric’s life from time to time, he wanted to punish Eric because he did not accept to be like him… or something like that, I’m not a headshrinker. And anyway Ocella’s brain was just a mass of faeces.”</p>
<p>Pamela sat down, pushed a button on the phone set and said coldly:“Ginger, bring two donor’s bags, whatever type.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Karin the Slaughterer sat on the leather sofa sipping her drink from a dark glass, her face washed and her composure restored.</p>
<p>“Two hundred years is a long time, and I don’t want to wait so long to see him again.” Pamela sat on the chair behind the desk, her legs crossed over the table.</p>
<p>“It’s a long time, many things could happen, I agree.”</p>
<p>“And Freyda is young and reckless…”</p>
<p>“So I heard,” confirmed Karin.</p>
<p>Pamela watched her lacquered nails trying to find inspiration in that alluring redness, then smiled and said: “I talked to Texas, some weeks ago.”</p>
<p>Karin made an inquisitive look and downed her glass.</p>
<p>“Joseph Velasquez, the former second of the late king, Stan Davis. He’s not very old, around two/three hundred. You may know his second and lover, Adua Nilsson.”</p>
<p>“Swede by the name, if it’s a real name. No, it doesn’t ring any bell,” said Karin.</p>
<p>“I don’t know if it’s her real name, but she’s Swede, about my age or slightly more, and a past flame of our maker. She was with him a decade or so when I was on my own, they parted on good terms.” Pamela played with her phone, passing it from a hand to the other. “At any rate, Texas asked if I was satisfied with the state of affairs here in Louisiana. We talked some. He heard a lot of things recently, about Oklahoma and her moves.”</p>
<p>“And is he in a sharing mood?” Karin narrowed her eyes. “Why?”</p>
<p>“Many reasons, I guess. Some quite obvious, others less so and I will inquire.” Pamela’s mobile chimed softly, she looked at the screen and typed a few words. “Joseph was in very good terms with the late king of Oklahoma, they had many businesses together, private stuff I mean, Joseph was not Texas’ second at the time. Then Freyda arrived and overthrew the king with some help, and Joseph was not happy. The queen is younger than me, but not that intelligent it seems.”</p>
<p>Karin smiled and waved her hand inviting her sister to carry on.</p>
<p>“It seems that she is arrogant without having the strength to support it, and not very honourable,” continued Pamela.</p>
<p>“To bring a vampire over a thousand years old to her house thinking that a piece of paper could hold him in check is… quite arrogant, yes. What about her honour?”</p>
<p>“What they say is that she is not very respectful, doesn’t always keep her word and plays dirty.”</p>
<p>“Put like that is nothing new… I mean, many old vampires are like that, false, deceitful, misleading. This is not something our kind frowns upon,” countered Karin.</p>
<p>“You said it right: many old vampires are like that. Only, she is not old, a mere century and a half, and let’s imagine she played this game with much older vampires and tricked them…”</p>
<p>“Oh, I see,” Karin nodded appreciatively. “How can we…”</p>
<p>“In two weeks time I will meet Joseph, at an economic conference in his kingdom. I’ve been invited as neighbour.”</p>
<p>“Why you and not the Regent?” asked Karin.</p>
<p>“Obviously it’s the Regent’s call. And the Regent thinks I am good with numbers, computers, trading skills. Plus, Joseph might have dropped a word or two, I’m guessing.”</p>
<p>“So, this Joseph needs you.”</p>
<p>“We’ll see.” Pamela’s phone chimed again and she nodded. “Now, we have the problem of our favourite breather.”</p>
<p>“She’s not my favourite breather, she’s just bearable. Knowing Eric gave away a hundred years more for her and that she was somehow involved in Ocella’s death make her crying habit less boring.”</p>
<p>“From what you say, she’s depressed and unable to take life into her own hands.” Then Pamela added: “Maybe, we can see what Ludwig can do.”</p>
<p>“Ludwig?”</p>
<p>“A doctor of sort,” explained the sheriff.</p>
<p>“How long since you visited her?”</p>
<p>“Maybe ten days, and I have an invitation for tomorrow evening at her place,” said Pamela wiggling her phone, a message flashing on the screen.</p>
<p>“Good. Let’s start with a chat, then we’ll see.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>4. Marital Duties</p><p>(a) Sexual Intercourses.</p><p>The parties agree to have at least one sexual intercourse per year in the day of the wedding and at each anniversary of the said wedding.(…)</p><p>(b) Blood Exchanges.</p><p>The parties agree to have at least one non-simultaneous blood exchange every other year, starting in the day of the wedding and, from then on, at every second anniversary of the said wedding. The exchange will be done according to the following measures: the Queen will offer 100 ml of her blood and the Consort will offer 10 ml of his blood.(…)</p><p>(<em>Excerpt from the Marriage Agreement between the Queen Freyda of Oklahoma and her Consort Eric Northman</em>)</p><p> </p><p>Eric Northman, consort to the queen of Oklahoma, strode the elegant hall toward his office in the primary royal residence in Oklahoma City. It stood in Nichols Hills, an affluent suburb in the northern area, where large mansions were the norm. He had an appointment with Alfred Barnes, the queen’s second-in-command and a valiant fighter. Despite his position of trusted queen’s right-hand man the vampire did not overstep his role and never used his power unwisely. Moreover, the aide retained a faint control over the queen and had the nerve to disagree with her in several matters. Northman had come to appreciate his company beyond their sparringsessions. During his first year of marriage he had spent some good time with him.</p><p>Northman was aware that Barnes was his queen’s loyal guard and trusted main man, but his own role as enforcer, security counsellor, political and economical adviser required a strict collaboration with him. So, he studied the vampire very closely.</p><p>“Barnes,” said Northman to the vampire who stood at his office’s door.</p><p>“Sir,” replied the second with a slight bow and followed the consort inside the room.</p><p>Northman sat at his desk and watched the young vampire. Barnes was barely a hundred eighty centimetres tall, sturdy and energetic, a good combatant but no match for him. Beyond eighteen centimetres of difference between them, more than eight centuries of distance and a marked disparity in their fighting mastery, Barnes was not a warrior at heart.</p><p>“How is your leg?” asked Northman, remembering that two days earlier he had broken his right limb in several points while training with new recruits.</p><p>“Fine, sir,” Barnes sat in front of him, “almost perfect.”</p><p>“Good.” Northman had measured his strike in order to cause only clean fractures of shinbone and femur, healable in two days for a vampire of Barnes’ age. “Have you finished those reports I asked on the oil fields the queen invested into two years ago?”</p><p>“I sent them to your email before coming here, sir.” Barnes said briskly, then added: “May I remind you that today is the first anniversary…”</p><p>Northman lifted an eyebrow and, as his memory cleared from its usual state of slumber, the inquisitive look morphed into one of mild annoyance.</p><p>Then his memory awaked fully with a violent jolt and he found himself at his wedding, one year ago.</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>Eric had arrived to Oklahoma with Freyda two weeks before the wedding. This had been organised by the Extreme(ly Elegant) Events company and John Quinn, the weretiger, was arranging and officiating the ceremony. The queen was eager to be done with it as soon as possible, and not many guests were planned.</p><p>The event was held in one of her residences situated in the greener outskirts of the city, used specifically for official gatherings of any kind. Eric walked to the hall hosting the celebration in an elegant Italian suit he had not chosen, with shining handmade shoes he had not chosen, to marry a vampiress he would not have chosen had she been the last female of his kind.</p><p>Freyda was a known businesswoman of the state, who moved huge amounts of money and interests, and knew how to use her appearance and the media’s hunger for glamour and gossip to promote her businesses. Some human authorities were invited, along with a local tv and a few journalists.</p><p>Eric was paraded as a businessman from Swede who would invest his wealth in the state and hoped for a warm welcome in his new home. Two female journalists were very ready to offer that welcome, but limited their good will to interview the married couple to know all about their love story. Freyda supplied all the answers and Eric smiled numbly the all evening.</p><p>Eric did not remember very well the traditional vampire ceremony, held behind closed doors before the human guests’ arrival, the sumptuous reception afterwards, the ball and the dog and pony show that followed. He remembered, though, the first night with his wife.</p><p>That first night together Freyda had required the presence of her second in the bedchamber where they would consummate their marriage. And four of her most trusted personal guards remained in the adjoined sitting room.</p><p>Eric smiled sadly at the scene, but thought that Freyda, after all, was not stupid and feared to be alone with him. On the other hand, she had wanted him keenly and had fought for months to force him to sign the marriage contract.She hoped it would guarantee her the solid base she needed to secure her queendom strongly. But she also knew he was a powerful old vampire and all the negotiations had proved he was not satisfied with his actual predicament.</p><p>Also, her choice to exchange blood every other year in a ratio that favoured, in her reckoning, her influence over him was a tangible product of a sharp mind, albeit rather ignorant of the real power of his blood and mental strength. Freyda had required his blood quantity to be one tenth of the amount of hers, assuming that difference would make up for the disparate strength of their bloods.</p><p>That fatal mistake was, indeed, expected of a young vampire like her, as she was barely one hundred sixty-odd years old. Ancient vampires like himself never shared the knowledge of the changes that their blood caused to their bodies and minds in the long run. Obviously not all vampires were alike, but anyone who reached his age must have had superior strength and willpower.</p><p>Eric noticed for the first time relevant changes in his body around the age of five centuries, like the ability to fly or to endure pain longer and with less damage than before. Then, his mind had opened and intensified his already consistent powers of insight and glamouring around the seven century mark, along with an improved hearing. Next, at the end of the eighth century, he had felt the surge of power in his blood. Probably, with the existent technology in the human world, it would have been possible to detect significative change in the molecules’ structure or in the energy field surrounding them. But Eric recognised right away improvements in the healing capacities and in the augmented way to enter the gut of whoever drank even a negligible quantity of it.</p><p>In the twentieth century human medical science had finally discovered that the gut had a brain of its own, tied and communicating with the higher brain and to the amygdala, maybe even to other not better identified glands in the human body. By that time, though, Eric had already discovered how to use those advances in his overall abilities. Recently, moreover, the blood bond with his first wife had given him the chance to discover more about his own blood and its powers. For one thing, he could completely close his output and retain a complete input of the other’s emotions and state of mind, with the power to influence both to a certain extent. And he could hold an input from the other part even with a trivial quantity of blood, and for well longer than the usual few months other vampires experienced.</p><p>Alfred Barnes sat uneasy on the armchair.</p><p>“Barnes,” said Eric acknowledging his presence in the bedroom. “I didn’t know you were joining us tonight.”</p><p>“I’m just sitting here, sir,” muttered Barnes, and it was clear that his role as witness was not to his taste.</p><p>Freyda poured some blood in two glasses and asked: “Al, do you want some?”</p><p>“He can have mine, I fed well,” said Eric taking off his jacket.</p><p>“Thank you.” Barnes took the offered glass and downed it all at once. The sight of a visibly nervous vampire was a sour view.</p><p>Freyda approached Eric and put a hand on his chest. “Al, it won’t be such a hard sight, after all.” She wore a red gown with a tight corset and a loose skirt, but Eric had already seen her naked and knew there was nothing interesting to him. She was considered an outstanding female, probably because of her height and her regular facial features, but her body was too skinny and without any trace of muscles or feminine attributes, like breasts and bottom. “Would you like to undress me?” she purred to her husband.</p><p>“Please, undress yourself,” said Eric taking a seat on the armchair opposite the queen’s second.</p><p>Freyda did not flinch and unbuttoned her corset, then lowered one strap of the dress and the other. She was in front of Eric when the gown fell to the floor, and she stood naked with a pair of high heels. Eric watched her without a desire whatsoever and told himself this was his situation for the time being, at least till he found a way out. Then he noticed that Barnes was obviously excited and decided to humour him a little.</p><p>The queen poured a few drops of blood on her breasts and murmured: “Why don’t you lick something…” At the same time she closed the gap between them and touched Eric’s feet. He thought there was not much to lick on her, but it would take nowhere to denigrate or humiliate his wife.</p><p>“Touch yourself,” he said simply, his voice colourless and bored.</p><p>“Mmm, interesting…” the vampiress started to touch a breast and her sex, thus sat on the rug and opened her legs to allow a clear sight of her vulva.</p><p>Eric was not excited and did not feel anything awakening, but he had to go through this and the sooner the better. He closed his eyes and thought of his lost lover, her golden hair, her pink lips, her luscious breasts, her round little derriere, her long strong legs. His erection was instantaneous and almost painful.</p><p>Freyda was now laying on the rug and masturbating vigorously. As was Barnes on the armchair.</p><p>Eric stood, let go of his trousers and stroked himself for a while. Then, lowered himself on the rug and asked Freyda to turn. The vampiress turned on all fours and whispered something Eric did not mind to listen to. He entered her in one go and moved with swift thrusts, her vagina unwelcome around his penis.</p><p>After a few minutes Eric released and headed to the bathroom. He washed and watched his image in the mirror. Patience, he thought matter-of-factly, it was not the first time he found himself in deep troubles and he knew he could come out of it in time. He only had to play along till the right opportunity presented itself, or create it himself. Though, at the moment he was devoid of any feeling and thinking about Sookie was surely not a good strategy of survival.</p><p>When he went back to the bedroom Freyda wore a robe and drank nervously talking to Barnes, who had a dark stain on the crotch of his light grey trousers.</p><p>“Eric,” said Freyda gently. “I should be disappointed.” Too kind to be true, Eric thought, and concentrated on his blood in her. He felt a raging turmoil of anxiety, resentment, resignation, maybe anger.</p><p>“I heard from the donors that the average Eric Northman treatment is really superb… is something wrong tonight?” said the queen keeping her tone level and her face sympathetic.</p><p>Eric had already noticed that his new wife was so sure of herself that the thought that she was not coveted could not find a place in her reasoning. Good. At any rate, it was no use to belittle her but, maybe, some pruning on her self-assuredness was to consider. He smiled tiredly. “Very kind of them, I’ll remind to send some flowers.” Then he added flatly: “I think I will retire to my rooms. Are we done here Barnes?”</p><p>“I don’t know. I thought… that you would require my presence… longer.” The vampire did nothing to cover his embarrassment, and looked at his queen.</p><p>“It seems that the night is ending now.” Freyda was annoyed but on the exterior she appeared poised and relaxed. Eric had to recognise she did a good job on her composure, but he still felt her internal turbulence.</p><p>“Barnes, did we satisfy the requirements of the contract?” Eric asked casually, then felt a peak of Freyda’s irritation and realised that she had not orgasmed. He wanted to tell her that his had not been a real orgasm either, just a mere ejaculation. But refrained and waited for Barnes to close the night.</p><p>“I think so, I… never did it before, I mean—”</p><p>“Oh gods, Al. We fucked, so we respected our agreement,” said Freyda hastily, then waved a hand to Eric. “You may retire. Good night.”</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>That first night Eric began to learn something about the strategy his wife had devised to make him warming to her. After a vicious war to win the contract, she was now inclined to give him a larger leeway than that granted by the strict observance of the agreement. The scheme was simple and old, it was referred to as using the stick and the carrot. Eric knew it very well, having used it umpteen times, but it worked only for some kind of individuals. He was not one of them.</p><p>Though, Eric played along and planned his own set of tactics. He took all she offered, like the possibility to have his own primary residence in a different area of town, to have some spare time to use as it suited him without answering to her, to keep company with vampires out of her close retinue, and so on. He, obviously, was well aware to be watched by her minions all the time, to have his computers controlled and his quarters bugged. He could endure that and counterattack.</p><p>On his part, Eric let her get closer to him and think he was beginning to like her. He accepted to go out with her outside of official engagements. A show at the theatre, a concert.</p><p>After a few months he had began to understand how the vampiress had become a queen at such incredibly young age. She was gifted with a great ability to glamour humans and vampires alike, with very deep sharpness. Her maker was probably very powerful and talented himself (or herself, Freyda had never disclosed the identity) but died when she was around a century, leaving her powerful but roughly schooled in controlling her own instincts and desires. She had continued to learn and practise by herself and then, once found the right opportunity, she had grabbed the state from under the feet of the previous monarch. </p><p>Her talent and her greediness had been the means of her ascent and, most likely, would be the reason of her falling.</p><p>His duties as security counsellor took the most of his time during his first year, but outside his work and his play with the queen, Eric’s main state of mind was numbness. Everything passed in front of him as a bad movie with a nasty plot and a sloppy direction.</p><p>He frequently thought about his first wife, but carefully avoided to think what she might be doing at the moment. He limited his daydreams to images of her, recollections of some good time spent together, her strength in fighting him, their lovemaking, her words, her scent, her flavour. He always promised to himself not to indulge any longer in this stupid remembrance, and reminded to himself that, even excluding Ocella’s intervention, the odds the they would have been together for a long stretch of time had been really low from the start. He would not have turned her against her will, and she did not seem set to possibly change idea, therefore losing her would have been only a matter of time. Ocella just anticipated it.</p><p>Yet, what he had lost was not a confused and wonderfully lively woman, but the only individual who had stirred powerful feelings in him. That he could not accept easily.</p><p>This musing started one day that Barnes, tired and injured after a particularly hard sparring, was in a talkative mood and, as his not very strong mind was weaker for the physical pain endured while healing, spoke more freely than advisable.</p><p>“Eric,” when they were alone the older vampire had invited Barnes to call him so, “I advised the queen not to fall for your maker’s sales pitch. I told her clearly that an unwilling subject was never a good purchase. But at that time she was striving to assert her position, and knew that it wouldn’t be stable till she found someone… someone stronger but not more powerful than her to help…”</p><p>“I know what she looked for, Al.” Eric nodded, but did not prod directly the vampire to carry on.</p><p>“She saw you at some official gathering, summit or so, and… she started asking about you. She… she likes you and…”</p><p>“She told me the first part, and was not shy about the fact that she wanted to screw me.”</p><p>“Ah, yes. Many kings and a queen asked to marry her, but she refused ‘cause all were powerful in their own right. She was afraid to become their puppet.”</p><p>“With me she felt sure not to be overwhelmed, I saw it too.”</p><p>“I warned her of the many subtle ways an old vampire like you could come out with to evade the marriage contract…”</p><p>“The contract is quite strict, though.” Eric did not understand where the second was getting at, and why.</p><p>“Ah, she told something similar. That the articles of the arrangement that you wanted most were also the ones which would prevent any instance of non-compliance on your part.”</p><p>“I know. I asked them,” said Eric unconcerned, then thought about it again. “Why are you telling me this, Al? Drink some more blood, call a donor.”</p><p>Barnes was evidently suffering from blood loss and damage to liver and a few vertebrae. “The queen sometimes is harsh but she’s good at heart, I know her.”</p><p>“I don’t begrudge her anything. She did what she thought good for her queendom.” Eric knew how to lie convincingly. “The fact is that I was not asked my opinion on the matter. But now it’s done, therefore it’s not worth thinking of the past.”</p><p>“That’s it. She said you would have seen things exactly this way one day.” Barnes smiled feebly and drank directly from a bag. “I think she will need some… help soon, she’s taking dangerous decisions, maybe you could—”</p><p>So, the loyal second was worried for the shaky position his queen could find herself in, and therefore himself. “If she asks, I’ll give my opinion.”</p><p><em>The articles of the arrangement that you wanted most were also the ones which would prevent any instance of non-compliance on your part</em>, Eric kept rolling those words in his mind. For the rest of the night.</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>After the first semester of marriage Eric gave in to the flirtations of his wife. It was an awkward business, but he decided that the time was ripe and he could not delay any longer without damaging too much her pride and self-confidence. In fact, both had to come out unscathed for his strategy to succeed: she had to believe her wiles and charm had finally captured him. Moreover, he was assiduously visiting the donors’ pool at the royal residence, it would not have been believable or acceptable to refuse the queen any longer without arousing unwanted suspicions.</p><p>It happened on a limo while going to a concert in a downtown glamorous club. Freyda reached out and stroked his thigh saying something to his ear, Eric managed an erection and she asked if she could do something for it. He pretended to hesitate, but then was over her and inside her in a matter of minutes. He did not care to be kind on purpose, used her hardly front and back, and afterward apologised profusely for his rudeness.</p><p>Freyda was glowing and asked him to stay at her place for the night, but Eric claimed some business to do and declined graciously. In fact, he did not plan to become his queen’s lover. She had to be always uncertain about his availability and ask every time with random results.</p><p>The following two weeks, therefore, Eric managed to be quite busy, in town or elsewhere, on jobs related assignment.</p><p>Then, an evening he was in the donors’ rooms and had just chosen a tall and heavy male to drink copiously (with no intention to have sex), when the queen entered and swept the room looking for a suitable donor. When her greenish eyes laid on Eric, he smiled mildly and asked the queen if she would partake the dinner. She was startled by his offer and the questioning look in her face showed it: in fact, it was the first time her consort had ever proposed anything sexual between them on his own.</p><p>Eric smiled remotely to his wife’s amazement and offered a little play. “Would you ride him while I bite?” He was already positioned behind the man who was sitting on a loveseat.</p><p>Freyda was thrilled and straddled the man enthusiastically, while her consort drank greedily. The queen’s eyes never left Eric’s and when she came he stood up, wished her a good night and went away, leaving her wondering what had just transpired.</p><p>That was the scheme the consort followed from then on. He made himself available only once in a while, spacing those episodes with several courteous refusals, always motivated by work’s commitments. More rarely, he offered some plays involving third parties and not taking part personally. Eric measured carefully the queen’s reactions and dosed his behaviour accordingly, letting her confused but positively receptive to his wiles.</p><p>In a twisted way Eric enjoyed manipulating her, but every morning he had some difficulties harnessing thoughts which tended to dwell on a dangerous past. And the past, he knew very well, was not coming back any time.<br/><br/></p>
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<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you everybody for your warm welcome and be patient with my many mistakes.<br/>This chapter (and the following) will be dedicated to connect the original story with this one. Given that my story begins one year after the last book of the series, I recount what had transpired meanwhile and how Sookie is coping with what she's been left with. It's slow paced and, at times, irritating. But that's Sookie.<br/>Hope you enjoy it.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>Sookie knew she had to move on. Though, knowing something was not the same as having the strength to act on it. She had tried and some days had been better than others. But a heavy emptiness had grown in her stomach and that weird nothingness had eaten her thoughts and hindered her legs’ functionality: she could not move.</p><p>Some days it was a very factual hindrance and she would spend the day at home. But instead of studying or doing some chores or a real activity of sort, she sat on the porch or in the living room and felt bad. That was all she was able to do some days, feeling bad and cursing herself for being so ineffectual.</p><p>She could not compare the present situation to any other in her life. When her parents died she was too young to elaborate a proper mourning. When her grandmother died there was so much to do that she realised it and grieved for her well after it happened. When Bill Compton betrayed her a part of herself died and she did her best not to visit that pain in her chest, pretending she could be friend with him. When Eric recovered from his amnesia and forgot his time with her, she thought she would never experience again that deep connection with a person. But then Eric was there again, in his twisted way, trying to patch his memory and asking her to help. She was scared, and thought he would reject all that had gone between them and dumbness had seemed the only option. At any rate, it was all that she could manage at that time, and the void he had left was filled with longing and uneasiness.</p><p>When Neave and Lochlan died and she lived, fear became her closest companion for months, but Eric was there nourishing her body with his blood and healing her mind with his trust in her strength. Now that she thought about it, Eric gave her the chance to recover without showing pity or compassion, just knowing her inner energy would have been enough and, maybe, pushing some of his own through the bond. In truth, she came out of it stronger than before with the knowledge, and the experience to prove it, that she could stand up to anything. Why couldn’t she use that lesson now?</p><p>There were not physical wounds but the blood was spilling out as well, she could tell. She looked at her face on the mirror, thinner and whiter than usual, her eyes a clouded blue without spark, her hair matted and uncombed. She had always shown less years than her age, but now her twenty-eight years seemed longer and heavier on her body.</p><p>The light from the window was fading fast and she had to prepare for Pamela’s arrival. Sookie did not want her friend to see all her weakness at first sight. Therefore she showered and dressed and tried to wear a serene expression, tapping into years of keeping a poker face in the flood of unwelcome thoughts from relatives, friends, bosses, colleagues, patrons.</p><p>Sookie found that old habits were somehow reassuring.</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>Pamela found Sookie at the kitchen table, groomed and subdued.</p><p>“I see that you kicked your ass and put on a nice shirt for me,” the vampiress said with a toothy smile. “I’m touched.”</p><p>“I didn’t want you to vomit on my floor, I know how squeamish you are about tears and swollen eyes.”</p><p>“Considered of you, breather,” Pamela sat at the table and watched the woman heat a donor’s bag in the microwave, then pour it in a pitcher and take it to the table with a glass and a napkin.</p><p>“Karin talked to you?” Sookie asked matter-of-factly.</p><p>“She’s worried about you.”</p><p>“There’s nothing to worry about,” the woman’s voice was flat.</p><p>“Try again.”</p><p>“Oh, Pam, I just need some time to think.”</p><p>“You had a whole year. What is there still to think that you haven’t already?” the vampiress tone was level but unyielding.</p><p>Sookie startled at the cold tone of her friend. “One year…?”</p><p>“Time goes by, Sookie, and doesn’t come back, nor can it change even if you think about it intensely. You should focus on your present and plan for your future. If you want one less dull than this one.”</p><p>“Very helpful, thank you,” snarled Sookie.</p><p>“I’d really like to help you, Sookie,” Pamela laid eyes on her friend with uncomfortable sweetness. “But you too have to help.”</p><p>“Don’t you think that I’d like to feel better myself?” Sookie’s voice appeared strained.</p><p>“Yes, but you’re not working on it full time, let’s say so.” The pitcher kept the blood warm and the vampiress filled again her glass. “How about your courses at the college?”</p><p>“I completed a semester and will see for the next in a few weeks…”</p><p>“Karin said you missed some classes, and some final exams too,” said Pamela.</p><p>“I’ll take makeup exams, it’s nothing.”</p><p>Pamela nodded and could not help to think that they had a very similar conversation a few months ago, and then she had been kind and forgiving with her friend. Maybe a different approach could shake things up.</p><p>“What have you been doing this week?” asked the vampiress casually.</p><p>Sookie resigned without grace. “I did some research for the psychology class, and some for history. I visited Jason and Michele, she is pregnant, you knew? I went to the gym…” She hesitated then covered her face with both hands, holding her breath.</p><p>“What have you been thinking lately?” Pamela’s tone was commanding, and unavoidable.</p><p>Sookie’s eyes filled up with tears of fury and frustration and she shouted in a seemingly controlled frequency. “More than a year ago she came here to see me, she said to see who was this woman who held his attention. She said she was intelligent, rich, beautiful and that at the end he would have preferred her, and you know what? She was right, he divorced me for her.”</p><p>“Freyda?” the vampiress knew who the ramblings were about. If those started with a <em>she</em> it would be Freyda, whereas a <em>he</em> was for Eric.</p><p>“He lied to me. He promised me she wouldn’t win, though he is there with her.”</p><p>“Sookie, I know it’s hard to understand for you, but without the king’s backing he could not avoid the binding force of his maker’s contract. He tried everything, believe me. Eric offered the king all his wealth, which is much more than what Freyda gave Felipe,” the vampiress spoke with a calm she did not feel. “I think Felipe wanted to get rid of him in retaliation for Victor’s death, or that the bargain involved something else we were not privy to, I don’t know. What I know is that Eric did not choose anything in this matter, because had he had any choice, he would have chosen you and his freedom. Do not doubt about that, my friend.”</p><p>Sookie stood up with a pained expression and put a hand to the heart, staggering back from the table to the kitchen’s counter. Pamela saw the scene before it rolled out in front of her: her friend would have repeated Eric’s words trying to find explanations to sooth her nerves. Once again finding none.</p><p>“Yes, he said so either.” Sookie’s voice was less than a whisper, but for a vampire’s ears it was loud and clear. “‘Don’t doubt that I love you and care about your welfare as much as I am able’, he said two days before divorcing me, and ‘never doubt my affection’ a few minutes before,” she quoted in a stilted way. “Then he did what he did. And between words and actions…”</p><p>“Sookie, do not torment yourself this way. He did all he did to protect you, and now you have to follow suit and take your life back. That’s what he would want of you.”</p><p>“And what I do want is not even to consider?”</p><p>The blond vampiress was at a loss with words and fought the urge to embrace the frail human in front of her. Or to kick her bum.</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>Most of her life Sookie had thought her telepathy was a curse and a disability, and tried to hide it behind a veil of normality. Pretending to be as everybody else, though, was a constant drainage of energy and the toll was high. That is why the encounter with Bill Compton drew a line in her life, a before and a after that slowly changed her views on many things.</p><p>Very slowly, and very deep. As if a complete remake of some internal machinery was necessary in order to allow a new order of thoughts to flourish, and that persistent inner work was masked by an unsettling turmoil of emotions.</p><p>First of all Bill, beyond his lies and betrayal, had valued her because of her telepathy and, instead of qualifying it as an hindrance, he had helped her to build the shields that had allowed her to put a stop to the assaults of others’ mental waves. Then Eric, with admiration and proudness, had accepted her as a whole, and her telepathy had become a gift and a source of achievement. In those few years with the vampires, for the first time in her life, Sookie had not needed to mask her nature. Looking back at her life then, though, she had not appreciated the vitality she was experiencing from being herself without shame. Something happened during the last year, though, since vampires and their fearful world had left her alone. Some mechanisms of her mind had started a life of their own, her thoughts were not linear and consequential anymore. They went in circles. Bubbles.</p><p>Sookie was shattering under burdens larger than her little life. And for the first time she would have used a good chat with a friend. But she had no one to call: Tara was busy with her twins and the shaking relationship with JB, Amelia was distant in more ways than she liked to admit, Jasonwas not very introspective and helpful, his wife was strong and reliable but had her pregnancy to think about, Sam was still waiting for her. All in all, she had no human friends to rely on. Probably Claudine, her fairy godmother, had been the only being to have offered true friendship asking nothing in return.</p><p>Sookie considered sadly that all her so called friends had done, one way or another, was to tell her how to live her life. No one had ever accepted her telepathy, not even named it, and everybody had tried to tie her to the limits of their own life. She gave up college and education to help her granny to pay the bills, but no one -not even her grandmother- had ever asked what she would have really desired to do instead.</p><p>That was it: no friend of hers had ever asked her about the way she would have walked her life. Waitressing had been the only chance when she was barely eighteen years old, and after a few years not even she questioned that choice nor the fact that she did not pursue other opportunities. When she was a young girl and had hard times with boys because of her ability, no one really tried to understand her feelings and her pain. Everyone was disturbed by her weirdness at different degrees. Maybe Amelia, being a witch, showed no embarrassment to her reading, but surely she did not appeare supportive of Sookie’s choices when diverged from her preferences.</p><p>This was exactly the bottom line Sookie was painfully reaching about her friends: no one ever asked her what she really wanted or thought. Of all the persons she had met and befriended, even if some only briefly or superficially, very few had respected her views. Claudine, Cataliades, Dermot, Eric, Pamela, Karin.</p><p>Sadly, none was human. None was <em>normal</em>.</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>Karin waited on the porch of Sookie’s house till the yelling and crying calmed down, then delayed some more. One hour. When Sookie noticed her presence, Karin opened the outer door and lingered on the threshold, inhaling the fresh smell of the night. She felt energetic and positive.</p><p>Sookie appeared paler than usual and with swollen red eyes. Karin hugged her tightly, oblivious of the shocked gaze from her sister.</p><p>“Pam is here.” Sookie tried to disentangle from Karin’s limbs, knowing Pamela would have been horrified by their closeness and she did not wish to embarrass the older vampiress.</p><p>“I don’t care, she’ll survive.” Karin did not share the stiff attitude most vampires showed in public, and her sister barely qualified for public.</p><p>Pamela smiled and lifted her glass. “A drink?”</p><p>“Thank you, I’ve just fed.”</p><p>“Well, someone still knows how to dine properly.” Pamela knew Karin preferred feeding from live sources.</p><p>Sookie went back to the sofa and sat folding her legs at the side, a wide smile on her delicate face. Her two friends looked at her expectantly and she felt content to have them there. “I’m happy to call you my friends and I’m lucky to have you here.”</p><p>The vampires looked at each other questioningly, then at the human on the sofa. They hoped it would not be the start of another friendship speech Sookie had began to release on a monthly base since some time. But Karin tried to lighten the tone. “Pam, did you beat her or what?”</p><p>“To put some sense in that head one has to break it.”</p><p>“I know I’ve been a pain in the back,” still smiling Sookie patted the cushion at her side and eyed the old armchair with the afghan on the back. “Sit down, and be patient with me. I’m only a stupid human, a little messed up at the moment.”</p><p>Karin slid elegantly at her side. “We’re all tense. But you have a specially disturbing way of showing it.”</p><p>“Yes, I’ve been told so a few times.”</p><p>“After some discussion,” Pamela announced and took a sip from her glass, “Sookie agreed to do something for herself, something productive and positive for once.”</p><p>“How can you be so calm when everything is so wrong?” Sookie had dropped her smile and now clasped her hands nervously. “I feel I’m dying inside, and sometimes wish to die outside too. Everything I wanted is gone, and what’s here doesn’t seem so relevant any more.”</p><p>“Time. That’s the variable that gives you perspective and… time to react.” Karin put a hand over Sookie’s hands. “Do not think that we don’t suffer or that we don’t feel all the emotions of the world. Yet, time teaches how to control them, how to sieve through them and choose only the most appropriate for the desired outcome.”</p><p>“I know. I’ve lived with the bond and I know how strong emotions you feel…” She shook slightly her head and continued. “I don’t know what to do, nothing seems really important, nothing has sense to me…”</p><p>“There’s something that has always sense, whatever happens. You.” Karin’s eyes were blueish and steely. “When nothing around you has meaning, watch yourself and do what is more needed in the immediate, be it healing, protecting, strengthening, resting, forgetting. You have neglected yourself for too long, it’s time to take care of the most important part of you, that kernel that is you, without all the frills and burdens that life put on us.”</p><p>“I wouldn’t know where to start.”</p><p>“What do you really want?” Pamela asked to no one in particular, as if speaking to herself.</p><p>A tear went down Sookie’s cheek and she swept it away quickly. “Given that my first choice is not in my power I’ll go for the second… I’d like to feel myself complete and calm, centred… possibly serene.”</p><p>“It’s not a second choice, but the first one ever. Without you, complete and centred, nothing else can be.” Karin spoke without accent, a little roughness at the edge.</p><p>“Is it why I failed at everything I did in life? I was never complete and centred?”</p><p>“Very likely, but don’t be so hard on you,” the words flowed throatily from Karin. “You are so young and still learning to walk.”</p><p>“Some of us have the pleasure to learn important lessons after centuries of mistakes, while humans have to concentrate their learning in a far shorter time. You have to work harder.” Pamela smiled somehow reassuringly, glazing at her minute sister. She was happy to have finally met her at the time of Eric’s departure: maybe the last tender gesture from their maker to them both and the only tangible sign of his love for Sookie.</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>Sookie wondered again how she had ended up in Sam’s arms a few days after Eric left for Oklahoma. That time was a cloud of grey and cold in her memory, something she felt ashamed of and furious at. At the end, though, it was something she had done and, as Pamela said many times, <em>we do what we can but nonetheless we are responsible for it</em>. Sookie smiled at the fact that Pamela had taken the place of her grandmother with her weekly aphorisms, but surely they were more appropriate and up to date. And they came from a more coherent source.</p><p>Her ability to remember pieces of her life had suffered a lot in the last year, but her psychology class’ professor, a round man with a combed moustache and sweated shirts, had assured her that it was a common trait of all memories: basically, one remembers what better suits her current emotional state. Sookie remembered only what pained or angered her, and this told how her centring was sorely lacking.</p><p>At any rate, Sookie recalled that that day she went to Merlotte’s just to retrieve her iPod and stumbled on Sam, then they were in his trailer having sex. At that time she even thought it had been satisfying and, anyway, she had badly needed the physical release. She was angry and tired, and Sam was there, meek and helpful as ever.</p><p>After all the mess with Claude and then Jason’s wedding, Sam was still there, willing and eager to fill the void left by her former lover. And Sookie was somehow pushed by her friends’ pressure to restart her life. After all, everything was fine: she was alive, no vampire was in sight (even Bill made himself scarce), his brother just married a very decent woman, her co-ownership of Merlotte’s and the fat monthly check from her fairy kins would have made her life easy for the first time.</p><p>A perfect opportunity for a new beginning. And she had readily jumped on it, without letting her misgivings about a life that she was not consciously choosing stay between her and a promising future.</p><p>Sookie wondered again how she could not have seen the signs of the cracks opening in her fragile mind. The dalliance with Sam lasted less than two months, enough to hurt him and severely stain their friendship. They never had sex at her house: every horizontal and vertical surface there reminding her of Eric. Sam did notice but said nothing: as it was his style, he waited in a corner.</p><p>Then, there was that time she was showering at Sam’s trailer and he joined her. It was almost a month they were dating, even if few people knew, mostly they imagined but none of the two had ever confirmed that assumption. Sam had began fondling her and Sookie had gone down on him, but hehad stopped her as usual. He did not like particularly those attentions nor he liked to offer them. He was hard and ready. After a little prodding with his fingers inside her he entered and pounded enthusiastically. It was pleasant and Sookie lifted one leg higher and closed her eyes. Then it happened without warning and to her utter surprise: amongst several <em>oh god</em>, <em>yeaah</em>, <em>good</em>, she yelled a resounding <em>Eriiiiic!</em></p><p>It took him a few more thrusts to understand that that name was not his. Then he deflated and leant back to the wall, cursing silently in his mind. Sookie obviously heard everything and also saw his hurt, no need of particular skill for that. She was still panting from her hard climax and could not think of anything to say to lighten the issue, so she was silent. They never really talked about it, he just said it was understandable, she needed time, and so on.</p><p>Sookie did not add anything to that poor excuse and after a few weeks called it quits. It was September and she knew that what she would regret were only two things: having used her friend as a rebound and having lost him as a friend this way.</p><p>Afterward, things became really awkward at Merlotte’s. Sam did his best not to be there when Sookie came, so she offered doing the books at home, organising shifts and waiting tables on three evenings and two mornings a week. He agreed but the air was definitively stale between them. After a couple of months he asked if she had rethought about them and if she was considering to give them a second chance. Sookie told him she wanted a second chance as a friend but nothing else. Things did not improve.</p><p>The following spring a letter from his lawyer had informed her that Mr Merlotte intended to buy her share in the joint-ownership of the restaurant and had offered the same amount of money she had lent him, plus five percent of appreciation, to be given in two years time. She agreed and from then on another monthly check arrived at her bank and she never set foot again at his diner.</p><p>Sookie wondered if Sam had ever been a friend or only a man waiting his turn for her bed.</p>
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<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sookie had never been a fan of sports, beyond her high school years and some swimming now and then. Her main recreational outdoors activities have always been sunbathing and cleaning the yard. However, since the time of her recovery from Neave and Lochlan’s tortures, she started going to the gym. At that time JB was her instructor and physical therapist. She dropped and restarted several times.</p><p>As of now, it was almost eight months that she went to the gym of the college campus, in Shreveport. She had four classes in two weeknights, especially organised for vampires, and usually ended up in some cinema or pub with Karin or Pamela, when the latter was free from her sheriff’s duties.</p><p>It was almost midnight, Sookie was in a foul mood and drove her second-hand VW New Beetle with a muted Karin on the passenger seat. Today’s two classes had been Psychology/II (<em>Guilty Conscience and its consequences, part 3 of 4</em>) and Economics (<em>Annual Budget Procedure, part IX</em>), and she had been furious even before entering the classroom at nine pm.</p><p>For the last ten days she had studied and researched a lot for her Psychology course and her state of mind had deteriorated exponentially as the dossier thickened. At the end of the lessons she went straight to the parking lot and drove to Bon Temps, without even acknowledge Karin’s presence inside her car.</p><p>After barely forty minutes she turned right into Hummingbird Lane and parked in the back yard of the old white farmhouse, now in better shape than her grandmother had ever seen it.</p><p>Her grandmother, Adele Hale Stackhouse.</p><p>Her words had reigned in Sookie’s head since she was eight years old and had moved to live with her after her parents’ death. But after the old lady’s death, a few years ago, Sookie had silently, and mostly unconsciously, diverged from the path her gran had pointed out. And that had costed Sookie a lot of headaches, heartaches and stomachaches.</p><p>Sookie had been raised by her gran to be a strong-headed and righteous southern woman, only she had to follow her gran’s guidance and precepts at face value. No thinking of her own was required.</p><p>But Sookie’s grandmother had earned her granddaughter’s respect the hard way, sacrificing a good part of ten years of her life to give her a home.</p><p>Sookie slammed the back door shut and stopped at the centre of her living room, now lighted only by the lightbulb on the porch whose light filtered through the windows. Karin took a seat on the sofa and went in downtime, choosing to wait for Sookie to say a word.</p><p>Sookie’s mood went from foul to muddy, then anger flooded every single cell of her body and erupted in a venomous yell. “Fuck!”</p><p>Karin jumped in her seat and almost snapped her neck turning her head to Sookie, who was still standing in the middle of the dark living room with clenched fists and a mask of hatred on her face.</p><p>The minute vampiress went to the kitchen and brought a glass of water to the shaking human, then sat again and waited.</p><p>Finally Sookie collapsed on her knees and sat on her heels. Undone.</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>A few hours later Sookie was sitting on the sofa looking lost in her mind, while Karin continued to observe her silently.</p><p>“Fuck!”</p><p>Karin nodded even if she knew Sookie could not see her in the dim light of the room. “You said it earlier.”</p><p>“And I mean it again. Fuck!”</p><p>“Care to expand?”</p><p>“I’ve been so stupid. Brainless. Blind.” Sookie announced with a certain surprise.</p><p>“Possible.”</p><p>“For so long… I cannot believe it.” The woman shook her head, “How could I have been so… dense?” Her words were spaced and carried no more emotion than that necessary to read a laundry list, as if every feeling had slipped away or dried. “She felt guilty and was in denial… she… she was shattered and alone, didn’t want to accept what she… oh my god, I’ve been so stupid.” Sookie stood up and went to switch on a floor lamp, then sat back on the sofa and watched Karin, her ash blond hair down and slightly tousled. The woman smiled. “We’re similar, mmh?”</p><p>“Stupid and blind?”</p><p>Sookie’s smile widened. “Different shade of blond, different shade of blue eyes, but you, Pam and I are very much alike. Physically, I mean. I wonder… if I had also some of your strength and determination…”</p><p>“From what I heard you have plenty.”</p><p>“I don’t see any now… I don’t feel any…”</p><p>“You’re probably looking at it the wrong way. Watch really inside you. A few hours ago you showed a lot of strength, both letting it flow and bridling it.” Karin’s face showed no emotion.</p><p>“My grandmother, Adele, is the reason I am part fae and a telepath. She…”</p><p>Karin lifted a hand and spoke in a grave tone. “You’re about to say something very intimate and dangerous. Your ancestry and your gift are to be guarded jealously. Only friendly and trusted ears should hear about it.”</p><p>“You’re a friend and I trust you. You showed me that much during this year.”</p><p>“I came because my maker asked me, not because of you,” countered the vampiress.</p><p>“Your year is over since a while. Why are you here, Karin?” Sookie’s gaze was unwavering and determined.</p><p>Karin held her gaze and nodded.</p><p>“I know what you did some months ago, and I know that your life is precious to you. Nonetheless you put it down for me.” Sookie stated calmly, so far from the enraged woman of just one hour earlier.</p><p>“Thank you, I am honoured and accept your gift.” The vampiress bowed slightly her head toward the woman.</p><p>“Thank you to you, Karin. I consider you the best thing that happened to me this year.” She bowed her head and continued. “My gran was human and fell in love with a hybrid, Fintan, half fae and half human. While she was trying to bear his child a daemon, Fintan’s best friend, offered them both a gift as a token of his friendship and love: a few drops of his blood. This should have given the unborn a special perk and an advantage. My father, though, had no particular knack, and between me and my brother, only I had the spark of the fae and the disab… gift of telepathy, a daemon trait.”</p><p>Sookie seemed to put together those pieces of her life as if fishing them from a tattered box found in someone else’s attic, alien and familiar at the same time. “The fact is that when my gran met my biological grandfather she was already married to my namesake grandfather, but they could not have children.</p><p>“Maybe this problem made her falling out of love with him, or her desire for children was so absolute not to respect her vows, or… I don’t know. But she fell in love with Fintan and had two children with him, then he died in the fae feud that opposed sky and water fairies. I don’t know what age my father and aunt had when Fintan died, or whether at that time granny had come back to her human husband or else. The fact is that my gran had been greatly unfaithful to my grandfather and I don’t know if he knew that his children were not really his.” Sookie paused, inhaling and exhaling deeply.</p><p>After a few minutes, she continued. “Adele, my granny, felt surely guilt for her betrayal and for the rest of her life, the life she spent with me at least, she preached how loyalty was one of the most important quality in an individual.</p><p>“She taught me to be loyal to ideals, relatives, friends, beliefs, with a determination only an offender of that value could pursue.” Sookie looked at her hands on her lap and joined them in a single fist.</p><p>“You know,” the woman carried on with a lump in her throat, “in my life, I’ve been loyal to a fault to relatives and friends who did not respect me, to beliefs that proved to be too small for our world, to ideals that were pushed into my head without having found a place in my heart. All this because my granny fell out of love with a man and in love with another, but had not the strength to go where her heart was, and stayed all her life in two places.”</p><p>“Are you angry with her, now?” asked the vampiress when the bitterness seemed to have left Sookie’s gaze.</p><p>“Yes and no,” murmured the woman. “Yes, she was wrong with me and poured her guilty feelings on a young girl and then a young woman who suffered a lot for her choices in life. And also no, as she did what she did because she couldn’t do anything else, therefore I couldn’t possibly expect anything different from her. She was not up to her choices, basically.”</p><p>Sookie looked at the afghan that stood on the armrest and winced sadly. “Though, in a way, I’m angrier with her because she did all that and then lost trail also of other choices of life. The fact that she didn’t have the heart to leave a man for the other is sad, but it was a choice she paid with her blood. Thus, I have little to say.</p><p>“But what with her children? She consciously made those children knowing Fintan was half fae and, therefore, she knew their children would have been part fae themselves. Moreover, she consciously took dae blood knowing it could have given unpredictable perks to their children.</p><p>“My father and my aunt had no repercussions from fae or dae heritage, but I (and maybe others along the line will in the future) showed both the spark of the fae and the telepathy, but she chose to ignore both and leave me, as a child and young adult, to fight alone against the problems that plagued my life. She merely tolerated my telepathy, but did nothing to effectively help me.” Sookie’s tone betrayed some pain now, but she dumped it aside.</p><p>“My father,” carried on Sookie, “knew nothing about his peculiar heritage and thought my disability was really a mental handicap, to be cured by psychologists and the like. Yet, my gran knew better but did nothing: she didn’t tell my parents nor her fae kins to help me through my hardship.</p><p>“She chose to ignore what she had done, and put a patch on it teaching me to mask my ability to hear thoughts, even with her, to respect others’ privacy. I was crazy Sookie since childhood and I lived ashamed all of my life…” Her words trailed off as she lost the strength to carry on.</p><p>Karin waited a few minutes, then said: “Now, you can make up your mind and take action. The past is just that, past. You can direct your present though, and your future.”</p><p>“Everyone of us is the result of her past and those experiences mark and define what you are,” Sookie spoke as if from a very distant place. “Someone said that some time, I’m sure.”</p><p>“And surely someone else said you can determine your future notwithstanding your past, I reckon.”</p><p>Sookie giggled nervously. “My gran used to say that any woman worth her salt could do whatever she had to.” Then she added sadly: “But she didn’t.”</p><p>“In this case her words were better than her actions: choose to follow her advice and not her behaviour. It’s up to you to choose what is good for you now. That is your decision and your responsibility.”</p><p>“And what about all the christian teachings of hers?” Sookie asked with a sour grin. “Where should I archive them? Advice to follow or to discard?”</p><p>“Think with your head and embrace what makes you feel better and whole,” said the vampiress. “In my human years I had not formal education, only what life handed me. Mostly not very kindly. In my vampire years I learned to discern good and bad by my personal meter and my maker’s conduct. In my opinion, christian beliefs are valid and honourable till a point, then become dangerous and hypocrite.”</p><p>“I did many horrible things, Karin, things I’m not comfortable with because of my religion…”</p><p>“Do tell.”</p><p>“I killed people and helped others to kill, for instance.” Sookie’s eyes turned darker and deeper at the memory of all the blood in her hands.</p><p>“Just a question,” Karin the Slaughterer smiled coldly locking her eyes on those of her friend. “Would you be here if you hadn’t killed those people?”</p><p>Sookie shook her head. “No, by a long shot.”</p><p>“And your god would be happier were you dead and your murderers alive?” Karin lifted an eyebrow waiting for an answer. When the woman seemed not responsive, she added: “You surely didn’t miss I go by the name of Slaughterer, and I cannot brag about any specific knowledge in religious matters. Nonetheless,” the vampiress’ voice sounded intense and committed, “I don’t recall a single instance in which a christian god tells his followers to give up their lives to murderers, torturers, rapists…”</p><p>“He said to love your neighbour as yourself,” stated Sookie passively.</p><p>“And it means first and foremost to love yourself. And protect yourself from others’ evil is to love yourself and your life, which is a gift from him, don’t they say so?” countered Karin, a little part of her mind smiling at herself as she goaded her friend with the same technique her maker had used with her. Opposing an argument with the same weapons of your adversary, had explained Eric, is the easiest way to instil doubts. A greek philosopher or a latin orator had taught that a few millennia ago, she thought. </p><p>Sookie nodded but her gaze wavered around the room without finding an object to rest on.</p><p>“If you don’t love yourself, how can you love others? If you don’t protect your life, how can you use your life to do good to your neighbour? If every christian believer let himself or herself be killed by evil people, in short time this world would contain only murderers.” Karin stopped to let her words sink in her friend’s shaking head. “Would your god be happy with that? He or she would lose all his followers and his words of love would be dead letter. The world would be a very cold place. Is that what your god asks of you?”</p><p>“I don’t know, I don’t really know…” Sookie’s shoulders sagged and her eyes showed uncertainty and doubt.</p><p>“Your god gave you all you have, that is what his spokespeople say, right?”</p><p>“Yes, they are called priests.”</p><p>“Hence your mind and your ability to think is a god’s gift. Would he or she give you an ability asking you not to use it? Your god gave you it so that you could choose what of his precepts are of better use in any given event.”</p><p>Sookie gaped at Karin, watching her friend expectantly. And vaguely upset.</p><p>“In my opinion,” continued the vampiress unabated, “defending your own life is always a commendable course of action, and if in doing so you eliminate one or more bags of shit that infect this world, you’re helping and loving your neighbours too.” Karin searched Sookie’s face to see a confirmation that her words were making a dent in her brain, then went on. “And if you off one or more scums who try to kill your friends, your god will sanction your conduct as an example of loving your neighbour.”</p><p>The blond woman slowly turned her head to the vampiress and smiled thinly. “I see where you’re going to. You are a good christian, then?”</p><p>“You tell me. I never killed an honourable person. I just killed people who were about to kill me or my friends, who were torturing, raping, robbing, in different forms and degrees, persons who could not defend themselves. I never attacked anyone without a reason or for pleasure.” Karin paused, then said coldly: “I defend mine and what is mine.” A thin smile appeared in her face, and she fluted: “Am I a good christian?”</p><p>“Am I yours?” asked Sookie instead.</p><p>“Yes. Your are my friend and my maker’s lover.”</p><p>“My blood is not his anymore, he told so before… before some people.” Sookie’s eyes were again distant and sad. </p><p>“You know he did it for the benefits of others. He sacrificed himself for you as he is loyal and honourable. The least you can do now is not wasting your life. Live and enjoy your life, your god’s gift is not to take lightly or to throw away.”</p><p>The woman nodded. “He hurt me.”</p><p>“Believe me, Eric hurt himself deeper by doing so,” said Karin knowing she was losing again Sookie’s attention.</p><p>“You love him greatly.”</p><p>“Yes,” confirmed the vampiress.</p><p>“I don’t know if I love him anymore after what he did. Maybe I’m not that good a christian after all.”</p><p>“That only you know… if you love him or not. But it doesn’t change what you have to do with your life.”</p><p>Sookie nodded, but a part of her could not find solace in those words, nor wait for searching it somewhere else. She would have appreciated to have surgically removed part of her memories. Maybe. Instead she resorted to what she knew. “Bill said he—”</p><p>Karin sneered annoyingly at the vampire’s name and retorted: “What has Bill to do with Eric and your feelings toward him?”</p><p>“Bill told me what Eric did for the bail and…”</p><p>“Since when has Bill become a reliable intermediary between you and Eric?”</p><p>“He is my friend!” Sookie’s outraged cry pierced Karin’s ears uncomfortably. </p><p>“Pam talked to me about this friendship. Did he become your dearest friend before or after his queen sent him to secure you? Before or after he seduced you as per orders? Before or after he left you for Lorena? Before of after he almost drained you? Before of after he raped you? Before or after all the lies he fed you with?”</p><p>Sookie shook at every sentence and her hands went to the ears to stop the painful words entering her brain. Karin finally shut up and watched the woman coldly, as if challenging her to deny those accusations.</p><p>“I thought you and Bill were… had a…” Sookie did not finish the phrase.</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“Aren’t you friends? Haven’t you having an… affair?” asked Sookie with a thin voice.</p><p>“What made you think such an abomination? Besides, it wouldn’t have changed any of what I just said.”</p><p>“You spend a lot of time together, it seems, and I thought…”</p><p>“I used him to watch over you, and I spent some, not much, time with him to know about Bon Temps and people around you. To protect you.” Karin seemed genuinely annoyed at the thought that Sookie had assumed she had a dalliance with her vampire neighbour. “So, what kind of friend is Bill to you?”</p><p>“He’s been my first boyfriend and the fact that we broke doesn’t mean we couldn’t be friends. He helped me many times. And he loves me. In his way.”</p><p>“A model of friendship, I gather. Liar, unfaithful, violent. Then he became the friend through whom you judge your husband’s actions.”</p><p>“He divorced me, remember?”</p><p>“Yes, and I was present at your house the night your husband came to tell you that what would happen in public was only a masquerade and that he loved you, and I was present at Fangtasia when he told you again not to doubt his affection for you. Vampire hearing, remember?” Karin was beginning to think that her human friend would not be able to overcome pain and bitterness. She felt tired.</p><p>“But he left me!” complained Sookie, unable to see anything else.</p><p>“He couldn’t do otherwise.” Karin stopped to inhale and exhale slowly, then spoke again. “But this is not the point now. It’s your life you should be interested in now.”</p><p>“Yes, my fucking life.” Sookie rolled the words on her tongue as if they were burning her mouth.</p><p>“Sookie, it’s time to make up your mind. What are you going to do?”</p><p>The woman stood up and circled the sofa once. Again and again.</p><p>Karin stood up and went to each window closing the inside shutters and the heavy curtains that blocked the light from the rising sun. It had been a tiring night, and probably it would be an equally uncomfortable dawn. After, she sat down on the old armchair and waited as her friend toured all the corners of the room searching for her answers.</p><p>Half hour later Sookie announced matter-of-factly: “My telepathy is a gift from god, then!”</p><p>Karin came out of downtime and watched the woman. “Your were guards have arrived, it’s well past dawn and I need to rest.”</p><p>Sookie nodded absentmindedly.</p><p>Karin stood up and strode toward the guest bedroom, stopped after a few paces and turned to her friend. “Am I a good christian?”</p><p>Sookie got closer to the vampiress, hugged her tightly and whispered: “One of the best I ever met.”</p>
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<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p>1. Property of Each Spouse</p>
<p>(a) Disclosure of Property Interests on The Part of The Consort</p>
<p>The Consort has made a complete disclosure to the Queen of his assets along with his debts, liabilities, and other obligations. A list of all assets owned and obligations owed by the Consort is set forth in Exhibit A.(…)</p>
<p>(b) Management of Properties of The Consort</p>
<p>The Consort acknowledges and agrees that any act of management of his properties as listed in Exhibit A is subject to the prior written authorisation by the Queen.(…)</p>
<p>2. Earnings of The Consort</p>
<p>(a) The Consort acknowledges and agrees that all property, including the earnings and income from his services, effort, and work earned during the marriage, or coming to him by purchase, gift, inheritance, or other means, shall be managed according to the prior written authorisation by the Queen.(…)</p>
<p>(c) The Consort acknowledges and agrees that all his living expenses shall be paid with the separate property listed in Exhibit A, unless otherwise agreed to. Living expenses shall be considered to include all expenses for clothing, entertainment, travel, education, medical care, means of transport (and their repairs and maintenance). As of now, the only expenses provided by the court will be those pertaining official services, engagements andduties, including quarters at the official residences of the Queen.(…)</p>
<p>
  
</p>
<p>(<em>Excerpts from the Marriage Agreement between the Queen Freyda of Oklahoma and her Consort, Eric Northman</em>)</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>One and a half years into his exile in Oklahoma, as Eric came to consider his forced stay in that country, he was closer to his goal but yet far from the right spot to counterattack.</p>
<p>The policy of working hard for the queendom and let Freyda hanging on his every move, without ever knowing what to expect next, had paid greatly in many ways.</p>
<p>The marriage agreement required the consort to disclose all of his properties and financial assets, and to manage them according to the queen’s authorisations. During the long tough negotiations, however, Eric had succeeded in turning most of his more productive assets to his children, while his foreign estate had already been hidden into several sets of Chinese boxes. What he had left was a reasonable, substantial wealth for an old vampire like him, plus some clumsy covered assets to let Freyda think to have found something. If she did find anything she never objected, therefore he knew she had kept the discovery for later use.</p>
<p>After the wedding, though, Freyda had adopted a strategy of detente to lure him into her embrace, figuratively and non, and had never raised objections to his, indeed very rare, financial moves. She let him manage even some of her (minor) assets, giving him the power to discuss them directly with her lawyers and financial consultants. Hence, he had adopted an aggressive policy to increase quickly her dividends, thus paving the way to build her trust in him.</p>
<p>As enforcer and security consultant, on the other hand, Eric had been given free rein since the beginning. He worked closely with Freyda’s lieutenant Barnes, and with her head of security, Malcom Adams, an unusual vampire who liked were sex partners. As day security was generally provided by weres and witches’ wards, Adams had a stable reservoir of recruits to draw on.</p>
<p>After six months from his arrival, Eric had had a clear overview of the security system around Freyda and some of her most important properties. The queen, it seemed, did not pay the least attention to the work of his underlings, namely Barnes and Adams, preferring to focus her close scrutiny on financial matters. This way a lot went unnoticed, and whereas Barnes appeared to be careful and accurate, Adams was definitely sloppy.</p>
<p>In a few months Eric had noticed that the turnover of the day-guards was quite abnormal: in five weeks his two were day-guards changed three times. At the beginning he thought Adams was sending him different recruits to test and evaluate. Then Eric had discovered that the previous soldiers had been fired or left the employ themselves, abruptly. After some more observation he saw that the guards’ rotations were a constant in every area: royal quarters as well as secondary residences, sentry and internal personnel alike, outposts in case of royal displacement, reconnaissance or other soldiers’ duties.</p>
<p>Eric figured out what was happening after one of his day-guard arrived at his residence covered in bruises and limping.</p>
<p>“A hard training, sir.” The werewolf was tall and muscular, though his brown-hazel eyes lacked the fierce look of weres, and his scent was blended with that of a vampire. Malcom Adams. And there was much more than his scent: the guard was full of Adams’ semen.</p>
<p>“After a <em>hard training</em> like that I don’t expect you to be on duty, given that your physical efficiency is hindered.” Eric was furious with the head of security who allowed a waste like that for his day security, and hit the were with an angry blow to the chest sending him to the wall. “I’m calling Adams to see to it at once.”</p>
<p>“Please, sir, don’t do it.” The were’s voice was incongruously thin but his eyes had a flash of anger and resignation. “Don’t… please.”</p>
<p>“The fact that you had sex with him is not relevant, but your state is deplorable.” Eric sniffed loudly and took his phone, but stopped noticing how the guard winced at the allusion to his own smell.</p>
<p>With a swift motion Eric lifted the guard’s face, pierced the wolf’s eyes with his and gripped the other’s mind forcefully. “What happened?”</p>
<p>The were’s resistance was minimal, but even if he had tried to oppose it, Eric’s glamour would have prevailed. “Adams likes to have sex with everybody, and if one disagrees he likes it better ‘cause… he’s very strong…”</p>
<p>“Did he force himself on you?” Eric’s rage was mounting steadily with every single word.</p>
<p>“…yes.” The male wolf felt ashamed of his weakness.</p>
<p>“Why is this the first time I smell him on you and why no one usually smells of him?”</p>
<p>“He’s careful to have sex only with those who are not in a shift afterward, and he gives a few drops of a concoction to cover his smell. Today… I spit it with his… sperm.” The were lowered his eyes. “I had to take the place of the guard assigned to you… he got held up.”</p>
<p>Eric glamoured him not to remember having ever spoken about it and sent him home, already planning how to exploit to his benefit this little piece of information.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>When Eric asked for a private meeting with the queen they were in her formal sitting room, along with Barnes and a few accountants. Freyda lifted her eyes from the screen of her laptop and smiled warmly. “Sure, consort. Now?”</p>
<p>“When it suits you, queen. But it’s delicate and concerns your safety, too.” It was a week after their rough sex in the limo, and Freyda had tried twice to be alone with him again.</p>
<p>“Then, immediately,” she said to Eric, running a hand over her loose dark hair, and to the other vampiresshe added: “Leave us alone.”</p>
<p>“Barnes may stay, queen, it’s a very important matter.” Eric noticed Freyda’s annoyance in understanding that it was really a work thing.</p>
<p>“Malcom Adams.” Eric said when the three of them were alone.</p>
<p>“What about him?” asked Freyda bored.</p>
<p>“How was it that he was appointed as your head of security?” Eric asked levelly, knowing that Adams had been only an underling in the previous king’s retinue.</p>
<p>“When I took Oklahoma he was already in the security, knew everything and everyone and I appointed him when he swore his fealty to me.”</p>
<p>Eric knew then how the vampiress had garnered her inside knowledge of the late king’s royal residence, and probably the means to kill him.</p>
<p>“Then, I guess, lately he developed some bad habits that could conflict with your safety requirements.” Eric showed a moderate concern, as it would have looked out of place to be too worried for the life of the individual who forced him into an unwanted marriage. He, therefore, showed the reasonable professional interest of the security counsellor he was required to be by contract.</p>
<p>“What exactly?” Freyda asked.</p>
<p>“Adams forces his underlings to have sex with him, willingly or not, thus the average employee endures for a couple of months then resigns, or is fired because not complying. The outcome is that you, queen, do not have reliable protection. Guards are stressed, change frequently and, what is more, do not develop any loyalty to you.”</p>
<p>Freyda turned to her lieutenant and said icily: “Al, what do you have to say?”</p>
<p>“Queen, I did tell you last year that too many guards rotated around you and—” Barnes’ mouth was dry, his hands clenched around each other.</p>
<p>“Freyda,” Eric interrupted him sitting across from her. “Barnes could not know of this peculiar habit as Adams uses a potion to mask his smell. It was just chance I found out.” By the lack of surprise in Freyda’s reactions Eric knew she was aware of this detail. But maybe not of all the uses her vampire put it to.</p>
<p>“Consort, what do you suggest?”</p>
<p>“I’m sorry to say that Adams failed to live up to the position you elevated him to. As for whom you could appoint as your head of security, I don’t know well your vampires to suggest one.” Eric turned to the lieutenant and encouraged him. “Barnes?”</p>
<p>“Maybe there’s one, or two. I have to see if—” Barnes was trying to buy time and his eyes were jumping from a piece of furniture to Eric and the queen.</p>
<p>“If I may,” Eric chimed in again looking intensely at the queen. “Take a couple of days to think about it, Freyda. But your security cannot wait. Among your personal guards do you have one whom you trust wholeheartedly?” Eric felt a hint of fear from his wife, immediately followed by a mild dizziness, then a burst of resolution. Her expression gave nothing away, as well as his, but he had seen through her. She had not trustworthy people to turn to.</p>
<p>“Yes,” Freyda nodded stiffly,“I have already one in mind.”</p>
<p>“Charge him of your security for a few days, just the time to choose whom to appoint as head of security.” Eric nodded in return and added to the second: “Barnes, if you need my advice just ask.” He stood and headed to the door, halting just before opening it. “Freyda, a brief call to the packmaster of the werewolves you’re employing wouldn’t be wasted.” Eric knew most weres in her guard were loners and, not for the first time, wondered how she had succeeded in overthrowing a king.</p>
<p>The day after Barnes brought to his attention the name of two vampires to know if he thought they were suitable candidates for the vacant position, and Freyda charged him to negotiate a contract for securing a given number of members from the local pack for her day security. Eric’s goading had been light and gentle, and he had achieved in a few days what he would not have thought possible only a few months before.</p>
<p>The new head of security was a vampiress who had the physical dimensions of a male and the mental flexibility to learn quickly how to move in her new position. Her name was Roxanne Hayes. She understood immediately that her elevation had been a consort’s choice.</p>
<p>Her first act was to appoint a lone werewolf as her aide, the one suggested by the consort, charging him of the day security of the first royal residence in Oklahoma City and of choosing his men among those sent by the local packmaster. His name was Alan Ford and he was tall and muscular, with brown-hazel eyes and the fierce look of a wolf.</p>
<p>Two nights later Eric had joined the new security heads at a warehouse some kilometres north of town, in a clearing surrounded by a thick wood. The location was a training facility for the security personnel.</p>
<p>The consort stood at the centre of a wooden platform, at his side a gagged vampire heavily tied up with silver chains and behind them Roxanne Hayes and Alan Ford. Barnes and four other vampires occupied a back corner and a dozen weres filled the rest of the place.</p>
<p>“This vampire is guilty of having betrayed the trust of your queen. His death sentence will be executed by one of you.” Eric voice filled the empty place soaring to the roof, its echo longing in the air. “Ford, I lend you my blade.”</p>
<p>Ford came forwards and took the long, heavy sword with two hands. Everything had happened in a few days and he was not sure of what had really emerged, but he had more than a suspicion that Eric Northman knew what took place under Adams’ care.</p>
<p>The wolf balanced the blade in his hands, lifted it, then cut the vampire’s neck with an angry swipe that sent his head a few metres sideways.</p>
<p>Towering behind Ford, Eric whispered at his ear: “Never again under my watch, I promise.” The wolf turned and nodded his head, then Eric added in a louder volume: “Next time you feel like beheading someone, your movement has to be sharper, smoother. Tomorrow I’ll teach you, if you wish.”</p>
<p>“I do,” replied Ford.</p>
<p>It was a patient work that required to conquer trust and loyalty. Eric was patient, only not every day. Therefore, he tried to find satisfaction in little goals. Little victories. </p>
<p>
  
</p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>In the tenth month of Eric’s exile his child sent him a message. The authenticity of the message was not an issue, but the motives of the messenger could have been. </p>
<p>Eric sat on a pompous armchair in the formal sitting room of Freyda’s quarters, opposite his wife and at a right angle from the king of Texas’ emissary. The official messenger was a young vampiress with the look of a country teacher who dressed up as cowgirl in weekends. Tonight’s dress seemed a Friday.</p>
<p>It was almost midnight and the emissary was about to leave, having spent three nights in useless negotiations with the queen. The problem was an oil field which ran from Texas to Oklahoma: the three companies in charge of the exploitation, two Texas’ and one Oklahoma’s, were claiming respective infringements of the trilateral agreement that secured extraction’s rights. The owners were all vampires and the two monarchs had to set the dispute. Freyda, though, was not collaborating.</p>
<p>Eric had been invited to the table only the third night as Freyda had not succeeded in persuading Texas’ representative to concede her point. The only improvement Eric had gained was a postponement of one month before referring the dispute to a third monarch, chosen by the same disputants or, failing that, by the clan’s representative. Actually, though, the election of Zeus’ delegate was stalling and, thus, it would have been better to find a civil solution before resorting to more traditional ways of settling scores.</p>
<p>The texan vampiress was sipping fresh blood from a cup of fine china, while Freyda preferred a precious goblet of blood laced with endorphins. It was the end of the diplomatic play for that evening and Eric, having fed from a donor before the meeting, was eager to join Roxanne Hayes and Alan Ford at the training ground.</p>
<p>The king’s emissary put the empty cup on the coffee table and turned to Eric. “Consort, I was forgetting to deliver your child’s message. She wishes you well.”</p>
<p>He froze and managed to lift an eyebrow. The queen continued to drink from her goblet.</p>
<p>“She wanted to send you a bouquet of red roses but thought you wouldn’t have appreciate.”</p>
<p>Eric froze some more, if possible. <em>Red roses</em> was part of a code Pamela and he had devised decades earlier to communicate in case third parties’ listened. The next part, to confirm the loyalty of the messenger, was <em>book of poems</em>, while in case of a dubious courier the words would have been <em>box of chocolate</em>. The message itself had to be at the end of a sentence, repeated twice, followed by a fifteen second pause, then an odd question. A childish stratagem, yet quite effective in its simplicity: easier than a cypher but harder to crack if one did not know the real meaning those words stood for. They had used it only once before and it had been mistaken for a stupid prank from his child. One of many, indeed.</p>
<p>“Then I proposed a book of poems, but she said you are not sentimental. Well, there’s plenty of poems of wars I said, but the sheriff wouldn’t listen.”</p>
<p>Eric knew his face was blank and Freyda’s blood in him was ten months’ old, therefore quite ineffective as a means to detect any feeling. His stomach was churning madly.</p>
<p>“Well, for the next time, roses or poems? What are your instructions?” The vampiress paused a few seconds. “Your instructions?”</p>
<p>Eric watched the texan representative with a cold stare while counting the seconds.</p>
<p>Five.</p>
<p>Eric looked at his wife, but she was listening to the monologue without much interest, and now watching the muted vampiress with an inquisitive, bored look.</p>
<p>Ten.</p>
<p>The texan vampiress returned the queen’s stare and shrugged, as if to dismiss her own words.</p>
<p>Fifteen.</p>
<p>“Ah, well. What size is your foot? It looks enormous.” The vampiress behaved as a country teacher: Eric was certain the question proposed by Pamela had not been so tame.</p>
<p>“I guess our evening ends here.” Eric stood up with a nod and turned to his wife. “I would join Hayes for two hours if you don’t need me any more.” Then he looked again at the other vampiress and added angrily: “The joke was not pleasant.”</p>
<p>He did not wait for an answer from any of the two and strode out of the room, thinking how to deliver his message to Pamela.</p>
<p>Half an hour later he stood on the hangar’s roof of a little airfield out of town. A small airplane was parked just outside, waiting for its passengers.</p>
<p>When the texan vampiress arrived, he flew down behind the plane and squatted. Pilot and technician were humans and had just finished standard pre-flight checks. As the vampiress rounded the nose of the plane and approached the boarding stairs, Eric closed the distance between them and whispered: “Act on twelve article.” Then he flew away to the training ground.</p>
<p>Later that night, after a hard training session, Eric was still energetic and nervous, and decided to go back to the royal residence and take a donor. The queen was in the donors’ quarters, looking mildly agitated and pensive. Not a good thing, thought Eric.</p>
<p>“Consort, did you have a good time at the training ground?” Freyda spoke casually but Eric saw tendrils of worries. The queen added: “You left angry, I’d say.”</p>
<p>The vampire smiled coldly. “The texan was not fun. I wonder what you told her about my children…” Eric’s show of anger had been for the queen’s benefit then, but rethinking about it made him taste fresh sourness in his mouth. True anger, in fact, was an acidic flavour that tainted any other taste, any other thought.</p>
<p>“Eric! Do you think I asked her to—”</p>
<p>“Didn’t you?” His tone was slightly ironic as Eric wanted the queen thinking he suspected her of a ruse.</p>
<p>“No! Why should I?” Freyda claimed indignantly.</p>
<p>“I don’t know your motives most of times. Maybe… to test me?” Eric continued to feed her anxiety and confusion.</p>
<p>“I don’t need such petty tricks!” The queen replied still affronted. “Didn’t I show you that I trust you?… to a certain extent, at least.”</p>
<p>“I know you control my every move, my computer, my correspondence.” Eric spoke levelly, and added: “But I wouldn’t expect any less, queen.”</p>
<p>“Well, then you should also have noticed that this oversight has already relented as of late.”</p>
<p>He just lifted an eyebrow.</p>
<p>“Were you here for a little meal, I guess?” Freyda touched a generous woman in her thirties, tall and shapely. “Would you share a donor? Maybe, after a snack, you’ll see things in a better light…”</p>
<p>Eric eyed the woman, as if to evaluate if she could feed two, and nodded. “Go on.”</p>
<p>Freyda’s pool of donors were required to sign a waiver and release form giving up all claims to the company that run the service. Further, most of them accepted to engage in sexual behaviours and to receive an agreed compensation in case of injuries. Just a step above cattle.</p>
<p>The queen headed for a cosy sitting room adjoined to the donors’ main quarters, and Eric followed her and the woman, closing the door behind them.</p>
<p>“How would you prefer…?” Eric smiled at the queen’s awkward way to indulgehim and replied jokingly. “Well, if you pleasure her… I’d like to taste her when high.”</p>
<p>Freyda smiled knowingly. “A little fussy, tonight. Maybe I’m in the mood…”</p>
<p>Eric took a dildo from a cabinet offering it to the queen, then motioned the woman to a plush chair and sat on the opposite sofa. He watched dispassionately how Freyda worked on the woman and, at the beginning of the donor’s climax, he rounded the chair and bit the woman on the jugular vein, while Freyda bit on the femoral vein at the same time.</p>
<p>“Better, indeed,” said the queen licking her lips and waving a hand to the donor as a sign to leave the room. Turning to the vampire, she purred: “Maybe, we can continue.” She was looking at the bulge on her consort’s crotch.</p>
<p>Eric watched the vampiress with masked disdain and the mere thought that he could not contact or see at will his children infuriated him. Nonetheless, his face was blank and no part of his body gave away his raging feelings while he approached the queen, turned her over the sofa, face to wall, and entered her with the used dildo. One hand moved the dildo in and out of her sex, angrily. The other kept her neck in a grip. When the vampiress came loudly Eric was somehow surprised, but he had already gathered that harsh treatments were the queen’s favourite triggers.</p>
<p>He considered exploring to what level of violence she was amenable. It was not a play he favoured, but anything that distracted and confused the queen was a viable path to try.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p>The Betty Virginia Park in Shreveport was a green haven Sookie liked to retreat to. It had not the luscious vegetation nor the natural magic of the countryside, but its green shell in the middle of concrete and glass was a balmy caress for her senses. When she had morning errands to run in town, she always saved a couple of hours to lay in the grass there or to watch children playing from afar. Their thoughts were simple and joyous for the most part, even if unruly, and she liked to listen to them exercising her shields’ strength and speed of response to those inputs. Children’s thoughts usually left no bitter taste in her mind, at least not those of well cared for offspring.</p>
<p>At the moment she was enjoying the afternoon sun of a mid-September day and regretting she had not done enough sunbathing during the fading summer. She opened her eyes as a shadow blocked the sunlight on her face.</p>
<p>“Mr Cataliades!” she exclaimed with a sudden cheery smile. “I’m glad you came.”</p>
<p>“Did you have doubts about that?” Desmond Cataliades, the daemon lawyer of the supernatural community, said with an equal cheerful tone. “You call and I’ll always come, dear Sookie. And, please, call me Desmond.”</p>
<p>“Yes, you’ve always been helpful.”</p>
<p>“And I hoped for a call of yours since long time. How are you?”</p>
<p>“Fine, thank you. And you?”</p>
<p>Cataliades smiled in a conservative way. “Alive and kicking, and these times that’s already an achievement.”</p>
<p>“Problems among Supes…?” she inquired without real interest.</p>
<p>“Nothing to dwell upon, dear,” Cataliades said shaking his head. He had felt her resistance and did not want to burden her godchild with more problems that those already gnawing at her. Sookie had never called him to have a casual chat, therefore he expected some unpleasantries ahead.</p>
<p>“Sorry, I didn’t want to be rude and I’m not used to be read,” Sookie blushed and tried to shake off her uneasiness.</p>
<p>“No offence taken, dear. I know you never wanted to get into our world, neither wanted your grandfather for you.”</p>
<p>“My grandfather,” repeated Sookie. “What about him?”</p>
<p>“Fintan loved you to a great extent, and did not want you to be involved in fairy quarrels and fights.”</p>
<p>“Yes, Niall mentioned something, but I’d like to know more about it,” Sookie patted the bench she was on, “please, sit down, if you have some time to spare for me.”</p>
<p>“My pleasure, Sookie.” He sat turning his body to face the blond woman, unbuttoned his light jacket and tried to relax under the hot sun he did not need.</p>
<p>Sookie noticed his sweating forehead. “Maybe a less sunlit place would suit you better?”</p>
<p>“Maybe, but I’d rather you had your share of sun, it seems you haven’t had much lately. And anyway, it’s too hot everywhere for me.” The daemon continued with a jolly tone. “I should relocate in Alaska to be really fine!”</p>
<p>“Sorry Mr Cataliades, my choice was selfish…”</p>
<p>The daemon shrugged and waved off the comment, noting that the woman had still a long way to warm to him.</p>
<p>Sookie nodded and was silent for a while, then inhaled deeply and opened the dam of her questions.</p>
<p>The daemon smiled and spoke gladly. “I’m really pleased you finally got curious and interested in your family. I never shared Fintan’s choice to keep his children, and especiallyyou, in the dark about their heritage and what it could do for… you.” Then Cataliades answered readily to all her inquires.</p>
<p>Fintan, Sookie’s true grandfather, fell in love with Adele, her granny, and lived with her till his death. Although he was half-fae his spark was great and he had the power to charm any human (and most supernatural creatures alike) and induce them to do as he liked. He lived with Adele and Mitchell in the Stackhouse’s farmhouse, close to the portal to Faery situated in the house grounds, and made sure no one of his kin knew of his children and lover. He did so to protect them from the long-standing feud among the fairies, and was himself a victim of that war. Adele carried on the same way, never telling his children and grandchildren about their ancestry and possible supernatural abilities due to it. Cataliades, Fintan’s best friend and Sookie’s godfather, was charged by his friend to take care of his family in case he died and the daemon had always been close to Adele. But, nonetheless, the Stackhouse woman proved even less amenable than Fintan not disclosing anything about their true family to her descendants. And when Sookie’s parents died at the hands of Braendan, Adele made it clear to Cataliades that she would hide her grandchildren in Bon Temps, a backwater place no one would think visiting twice. The daemon thought that ignorance of their roots would not be a good service to Fintan’s descendants but he swore to respect Adele’s wishes and her grandchildren’s. That was why he never intervened in their life if not when expressly asked.</p>
<p>“So, if you ask me I will do anything in my power to help and protect you,” finished Cataliades squeezing her hand lightly.</p>
<p>“What did you tell gran when you gave her and Fintan your blood?”</p>
<p>“I told them that my blood could enhance their children supernatural perks and even benefit them with some new gift coming from my dae line.”</p>
<p>“Hadn’t you been more precise as to which abilities would be included?”</p>
<p>“No, dear.”</p>
<p>“And Adele never told you I had this… ability…?”</p>
<p>“No. I think she never joined the dots, so to say, and anyway never asked me. I never knew of your telepathy till our encounter.”</p>
<p>Sookie nodded and was silent for a while. “Neither I think that ignorance helps in any way. See what it did to me…”</p>
<p>The daemon spoke carefully watching the blond woman with piercing eyes. “Now, it’s up to you and my services are at your disposal.”</p>
<p>“I think I can pay for those, Mr Cataliades. But you know better than me my economical situation.”</p>
<p>“Sookie, do not put it this way. Fintan was my best friend and I owe him my life. I do this for you out of my love for him and, one day not to far, I hope you will accept my friendship and my help without the need to mention an economical reward. The gift of blood is a very important gesture in our world, neverto be done lightly. You are family to me.”</p>
<p>“My gran used to say—”</p>
<p>The daemon put a finger on her lips and said flatly: “I’d be more interested in what you have to say on the matter.”</p>
<p>Sookie bowed her head: it would be a long way to free herself from her gran’s teachings, but any time was a good time to start. Now, for instance.</p>
<p>“Thank you, Desmond. I need your help.” Sookie was aware that uttering aloud that phrase sent her in uncharted territory, and felt a knot in her stomach. Her gran had never asked for help, but had always given a hand to everybody freely. </p>
<p>“Thank you, I’m honoured and happy to be of service.” The daemon smiled furtively and added: “Adele never wanted my or anyone else’s help, she was proud and stubborn. But those traits aren’t always commendable…”</p>
<p>“Telepathy is definitely your gift to me,” Sookie smiled and continued. “How have you lived with it? Wasn’t it a… problem?”</p>
<p>“No, my child, never a problem. From what I understood of your talent, it’s so strong you are not able to stop others’ thoughts for too long, right?”</p>
<p>“I always felt bombarded by others’ thoughts and feelings. Only vampires gave me respite and the strength to organise my shields.”</p>
<p>“That’s why you were never taught how to handle your hearing, and especially how to protect your mind.” Cataliades’ face fell and he continued sadly: “I would have helped had I knew, I’m really sorry for your sufferings.”</p>
<p>“Well, let’s say it’s never too late to learn something.” Sookie tried to infuse cheerfulness in her voice. “And I need a lot of learning… about my fae side and… my dae gift.” Her blue eyes lit up at the sound of her own words, and Sookie felt a true thrill of expectation.</p>
<p>“I like your plan very much, my wonderful child. I can teach you a lot of techniques and exercises to improve your gift, and to protect you from it at the same time.”</p>
<p>“I want more, Desmond,” Sookie said calmly, “now, I want more.”</p>
<p>Cataliades narrowed his eyes and felt that something had changed in the blond southern belle in front of him. Maybe a steel magnolia of a different breed had blossomed in Bon Temps, he hoped shyly.</p>
<p>“Tell me, Sookie. Whatever you have in mind, I’ll do my best to help you to realise it.” Cataliades smiled wholeheartedly for the first time that day and thought that the sun was not so hot after all.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>A week after her conversation with her daemon godfather, Sookie found Niall in her living room. It was afternoon and the warm light of the sun filtering from the windows made his long blond hair shine uncannily, making it clear he was no ordinary man. His composed beauty was beyond age and gender, and she felt compelled to embrace him. It was always like that with him, although she wanted to be more detached and collected, she ended up in his arm and liked it.</p>
<p>“Sookie,” Niall said closing his arms around the blond human who resembled so much his late human lover, Einin. “How are you my child?”</p>
<p>Sookie inhaled his sweet scent and revelled in the warm of his embrace. Fairies’ closeness had always that effect on her. Claudine had told her that it was a natural way of conveying affection and wellness among fae. And Sookie had experienced also the healing effect of that closeness with Dermot and Claude, at the time of her recovering from Neave and Lochlan’s attentions.</p>
<p>“The portals are not definitely closed, then?” she asked.</p>
<p>“Just one portal at a time can be opened, but only for very important matters.”</p>
<p>“Am I an important matter, Niall?”</p>
<p>“You are family, not business. And yes, you are very important to me. Not to mention the stress the daemon put on his request.” Niall released Sookie and watched her attentively. “You lost some weight and your skin is not tanned as it used to be.”</p>
<p>“It’s some time we don’t meet, and things have changed a lot, not all for the better, I’d say.”</p>
<p>“The vampire? The shifter? I heard.”</p>
<p>“Do you keep tabs on me?”</p>
<p>“Always.”</p>
<p>Sookie realised suddenly she had not yet offered his guest something to drink or eat, as her gran had taught her relentlessly. Yet, she was pleased to notice that her conditioning had kicked somehow later than usual. She went to the kitchen and brought something to drink.</p>
<p>“Please, sit down and drink with me.” A lot of questions clouded her thoughts and she used the time it took to pour their tea reorganising them. “Tell me about the vampire, first. Did you do anything to help with his forced marriage?”</p>
<p>“No.”</p>
<p>“He was my husband at the time!” she almost yelled. “You didn’t think that helping with that was something worth doing?”</p>
<p>“You did not ask,” Niall said calmly, “and you had the cluviel d’or, if I remember well.”</p>
<p>“You saw that I was desperate, and both you and Desmond warned me about using that token! I was afraid to use it badly.”</p>
<p>“But you used it as well, no?”</p>
<p>“I used it in the heat of the moment when a friend was killed in front of me!” said Sookie wincing in disbelief at his great-grandfather’s aloofness. And she remembered then, as a thorn in her side, the look of envy and greediness Niall had while watching the cluviel d’or in her hands: she sadly realised his fairy relative had not wanted her to use it at all. </p>
<p>“You did,” Niall said, an unreadable expression in his perfectly aged face.</p>
<p>Sookie strained to regain her composure before continuing the conversation. But she sent a mental note to her long memory box in the brain not to trust Niall, or any relative or friend for that, with a supportive behaviour if not specifically confirmed in no uncertain terms.</p>
<p>“And what about the shifter?”</p>
<p>“I know you had a… dalliance with him after you saved him.”</p>
<p>Sookie paled at the implication of those words. Only Michele, and therefore Jason, had a hint that Sam and she had an affair for a very short time. How could Niall possibly know that?, she thought, and then lifted immediately a strong barrier to shield her mind from Niall eventual interference, as her godfather had taught her recently. If the fairy ever noticed he did not show.</p>
<p>“I was shocked and in denial at Eric’s departure, and really I didn’t feel like myself for a few months.”</p>
<p>“It is a plausible consequence of the magic of the cluviel d’or,” Niall said matter-of-factly.</p>
<p>“Just that, huh? Nothing else to say?”</p>
<p>“I told you, I think, that it was a very powerful and unpredictable magical object.”</p>
<p>“How could I have used it to free Eric from his contract of marriage and keep him with me?” Clear and direct words were the way with him, Sookie reckoned strengthening her shields.</p>
<p>“I really don’t know, my child. You were stressed and addled those days, it was not a good situation to use that gift. It would have been better to ponder all the implications of your desires, serenely, before making a wish.”</p>
<p>“Are you willing to help me, Niall?” Sookie asked abruptly.</p>
<p>“As much as I am able, my child, I will help you.”</p>
<p><em>As much as I am able</em>, those words resonate in her heart painfully. A couple of days before the divorce, Eric had dropped by and told her not to doubt he loved her and cared about her welfare… <em>as much as I am able</em>. </p>
<p>“What does exactly mean ‘as much as I am able’, Niall?”</p>
<p>“It means that I would do all that is in my power to help you, laying my life for you if necessary.” Niall said without visible emotion, as if answering a question about the weather.</p>
<p>Sookie would have fallen if she had not already sat on the sofa. Her heart beat faster and unbearably for a couple of minutes, then she called all her strength and stifled her feeling of despair.</p>
<p>When she felt her voice would not shake, Sookie simply said: “Take me to Faery and teach me all a fae has to know.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Niall was still in his great-granddaughter’s living room and, for the first time Sookie ever recalled, he was speaking nervously.</p>
<p>“Sookie, the portal is a multidimensional threshold that can be crossed only if one has the spark, but I do not remember any one with so little fae blood like you ever crossing one.”</p>
<p>“Claudine said my spark was noticeable and remarkable.” Sookie countered calmly. She had made her mind and nothing would have stopped her, surely not a great-grandfather with dubious feelings.</p>
<p>“She had the power to see this, unlike me. I just see your spark, but cannot say how strong it is.”</p>
<p>“It will be enough,” said Sookie with a calm which was not hers.</p>
<p>“Sookie, my child,” that term of endearment was starting to annoy Sookie, and she tried to shake that off without any bitter remark. “The more powerful the spark, the more paths are open in front of one. If your spark is not stronger enough, maybe you will not reach the place…” Niall’s voice trailed off ominously.</p>
<p>“Let’s try, and if I bounce back we’ll know my spark is not enough strong and you will organise my lessons here, or in another place in this dimension.”</p>
<p>“I do not know if things are so linear. The magic involved in the passage is not simple and it has not really been studied from the perspective of a non-fae or little-fae.”</p>
<p>“Then this will be an empirical study: my passage, or non-passage, will contribute to the comprehension of this… magic.”</p>
<p>Niall resigned and huffed in an unrefined way. “You could die, or find yourself in another place… unwelcoming place, that is, or—”</p>
<p>“I could enter Faery without problems or not move from this dimension,” Sookie interjected completing the sentence. “Can you think of anyone who could know some more about this passage?”</p>
<p>“Maybe, but I need a couple of days to—”</p>
<p>“Well, take two days, do your research and let me know.” Sookie cut it short and wanted to close her eyes and slip away from her house, her mind, her skin. Away.</p>
<p>But Niall was unusually verbose and relentless. “Sookie, beyond the danger posed by the portal’s passage there are other circumstances to consider.” The woman was tired and annoyed at his relative’s uncooperative behaviour, but resigned to let him say his piece. “Once in Faery you could experience… changes. Some half-fairies developed a sort of addiction to the fae land and never wanted to come back to this dimension; others felt a deep uneasiness there and wanted to come back immediately; others thrived but needed to bounce from here and there to be balanced.”</p>
<p>“I don’t see the problem: if I choose to stay there, I’ll stay there. If I can’t stand Faery, I’ll come back. If I need to alternate between here and there, I will.”</p>
<p>Niall blinked nervously. “Faery and Earth have a different flowing of time, changeable and erratic.”</p>
<p>Sookie held a questioning gaze till Niall continued. “We experience time at different speeds. Since the last time we met, slightly more than a year ago in this dimension, in Faery more than thirty two years went by.”</p>
<p>“What?” Sookie swallowed some tea and waited, unable to grasp those words’ meaning.</p>
<p>“While here it passed just one subjective year, in Faery we lived thirty two subjective years. Imagine what will happen in case of a reverse—”</p>
<p>“Are you saying you experienced thirty two years during my last year and never came back here to see me? Your very important family?” Sookie feigned a hassle she did not feel, but wanted to see Niall’s reaction.</p>
<p>“I had regular news about you, my child,” he said amiably.</p>
<p>“Yes, you knew Eric divorced me and did not come to see how I was faring; you knew I had a sad dalliance with a friend I resurrected with a magical token and did not come to see how I felt; I survived two assassination attempts and you did not come to see how I survived!” Sookie’s tone was syncopated and cold.</p>
<p>Niall’s eyes faltered and he answered meekly. “I was in no position to come. After the portals closing we had to settle things… some factions were not happy and we had to fight and things were very uncertain…”</p>
<p>“Did you lose the war?” asked Sookie flatly.</p>
<p>“Recently we reached a truce and now we are working toward a different political solution which requires all our attention.”</p>
<p>“You lost your power, you are not the prince anymore.” Sookie’s statement lingered in the air for a while before Niall answered.</p>
<p>“My title stands but my position is not strong enough to rule over all fairies.”</p>
<p>“You have to share powers with others.”</p>
<p>“We are trying to establish a triumvirate to reign over all fairies, Sky, Water and Earth.”</p>
<p>Sookie smiled without humour and said: “I will gladly study fae history and this new political development as part of my fae education.”</p>
<p>“The time flow can switch again and you could lose all the persons you know here. One year in Faery could become thirty years here.”</p>
<p>“But you keep tabs on what happens here, to follow your businesses I guess, so I will know how fast the time diverge and come back, if and when necessary.” Sookie was tired and lost some of her initial determination. “Niall, I don’t want to impose on you more than necessary. But this time I come first… for me. Go and see if my passage can be arranged , then we’ll talk again.”</p>
<p>After Niall left Sookie realised she had dismissed him, assigning him a task and ordering him to report to her.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Desmond! I was just about to call you!” Sookie said answering the phone.</p>
<p>“Sookie, we need to talk.” Cataliades seemed hurried and slightly worried.</p>
<p>“Yes. Niall came yesterday.”</p>
<p>“And I just talked to Dillon. He called me.”</p>
<p>“Dillon?”</p>
<p>“His son, from his fairy wife Branna. Now he is in charge, not Niall.” The daemon spoke calmly.</p>
<p>“I gathered something was not right with Niall, but he wouldn’t say clearly, as his habit.” Sookie had just woken up and was still drinking her first coffee.</p>
<p>“The political situation is still very fluid in Faery, but things are reaching a resting point. At the moment the time lag between Faery and Earth is still very unbalanced, one day here is about one month in Faery. At what time Niall left your house yesterday?”</p>
<p>“Aroundsix pm. Why?”</p>
<p>Cataliades reckoned quickly and said: “It makes more than eighteen days in Faery. Something happened. How did Niall behave?”</p>
<p>“Oh, god! He told me about the time shift, but I did not consider it properly. We sort of agreed in two days for him to report to me about my passage. He was not forthcoming about the whole thing, as if he didn’t want me in Faery.”</p>
<p>“Yes, I thought the same as his son spoke to me. On the other hand, Dillon would welcome you.”</p>
<p>“Why?” Sookie poured more coffee in her cup and sat at the kitchen table.</p>
<p>“I can only speculate about that,” said Cataliades.</p>
<p>“Would it be dangerous to me being welcome by Dillon and unwelcome by Niall?” asked Sookie pointedly.</p>
<p>“By what I got, no, it wouldn’t be life threatening to you. On the contrary, being Dillon the one who retained all the power in the Sky fae clan, it would be advisable to be in his grace. What I cannot fathom is Niall’s reaction.”</p>
<p>“Tomorrow afternoon he should be back again. More than two months for him,” Sookie was thinking hasty and did not like it, “let’s see what he comes up with.”</p>
<p>“Agreed. And I will send you an email with some family history for you. There’s something you should know before facing both Niall and Dillon.”</p>
<p>Sookie was all too eager to know about her fae kin, starting from how much family they could be considered.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>That afternoon Sookie dropped by her brother’s house with a pecan pie and had a lengthy conversation with Jason and Michele. She did not want to tell them that she was (maybe) leaving for Faery the very next day, and at the same time she did not want them to worry about her whereabouts or worse. Therefore, she told them she needed time to regroup and a new location to do so, without sad memories or unwelcome interferences. Michele was very supportive and lovely, and firmly drove Jason to the same attitude. They agreed to receive news from her through the daemon lawyer, although they did not know his involvement, and wished her well.</p>
<p>Sookie left before tears began to pour down her cheeks. Her resolve had to be buttressed with a constant work over her misgivings.</p>
<p>Later that evening Karin showed up at her house. They sat under the moon’s light on the rocking couch in the porch.</p>
<p>“Where exactly?” asked the vampiress casually.</p>
<p>“I don’t know yet, but it’s irrelevant, isn’t it?” Sookie tried to be cheerful, but doubts and fears were lurking at the edge of her awareness. “The main point is that I will go to a place where I should find the rest of myself, and possibly some serenity.”</p>
<p>“I trust your strength more than you do, my friend.”</p>
<p>“Pam could not make it this evening, and I don’t know if tomorrow I’ll be still here,” Sookie handed a letter to Karin and added: “Give her this and tell I love her and will look forward to meet you both when I’ll be in a better shape than now.”</p>
<p>“I’ll wait for you, Sookie.” The vampiress smiled and took the letter.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Faery was a natural world, meaning that the environment was pristine and the fae presence was unobtrusive and did not spoil the idyllic landscape. Meadows, valleys, rivers, woods, mountains, sea, all appeared luscious and thriving. It was in the folds of that magic nature that several worlds met and was possible to move through dimensions.</p>
<p>Fae dwellings were sparse and far between, while gathering places were usually natural areas equipped with makeshift structures. Some major constructions were situated in places which recalled notable events of their history, but otherwise houses were not very large as most of times faeries loved to live outdoors. It helped that the climate was warm all year round and that teleporting assured fast means to sheltering.</p>
<p>Technology did not exist nor was it needed. The constant high level of magic supplied the means to live a very comfortable and luxurious life, along with the fairies’ frugal attitude. Yet, some human technology entered Faery in the continuous trade that had thrived since time immemorial between those worlds, even if once it was the fae artefacts that were the rage back in the human domain.</p>
<p>To Sookie’s eyes Faery seemed a sort of unspoiled and timeless setting with a subtle, deep beauty that soothed her senses. She felt a surge of energy and thateagerness to live that only children can sustain for long bouts of time. And finally, among many misgivings about her choice, a positive restlessness rolled inside her.</p>
<p>The quest for finding the forgotten pieces of her being had just began.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Chapter 7</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western">Sookie tried to open her mouth only to exhale when ending a movement and studiously ignored her throbbing ankle. The day was cold up in the mountains of the Northern Territories, where the reign of the Sky Fairy bordered that of the Earth Fairy, but her light garments were soaked in sweat and wild amusement.</p>
<p class="western">It was the first time in two years that she let herself enjoy the fighting.</p>
<p class="western">In the first months after her arrival in Faery Sookie the Angry, as she soon became known, felt her depression morph into self-aggression and self-loathing, and those pushed her to exert her body and mind to their limits. She studied the fae language and her surroundings with a frenzied determination that surprised both her guardian and her great-grandfather. Her guardian was Dillon’s younger child, Aine, a woman who resembled so much the late Claudine, a sister she never met, that Sookie felt almost uneasy in her presence. Yet Aine’s cheerfulness and eagerness to befriend the telepath had won Sookie’s resistance and they had become as close as the blond woman had allowed. Which was less than Aine would have wanted and more than Sookie was comfortable with.</p>
<p class="western">The same feverish purposefulness Sookie had put in learning the pillars of the fae education: music, dance, fighting, charming, teleportation, conjuring objects, incantations. Her best results at the moment were in the dance area, but even at her own eyes that hardly qualified as a skill that could take somewhere in life. Music, teleportation and conjuring objects proved to be out of her reach and she asked to discontinue their practice. Aine did not approved and asked her ward to try some more with teleportation, conjuring objects and incantations. However, although Sookie never succeeded in teleporting herself or conjuring any object, the long, boring and exhausting lessons about spells and incantations improved her charming’s skills and had interesting benefits for her telepathy.</p>
<p class="western">Therefore, fighting became the arena where Sookie’s body and mind found their favourite outlet and unforeseen rewards.</p>
<p class="western">Chadwick the Dancer, swordmaster of the Danu, was Sookie’s teacher. He was an earth fairy who sported the colours of his clan in his body: olive skin, red clay hair and hazel brown eyes. The little man was age battered and mischievous, ill tempered when in good mood and deadly calm when challenged. Since the first time Sookie met him she knew better than thinking his height and weight could have any relevance in his fighting skills. After all, Pamela and Karin were both shorter than her but their prowess and lethal results were not affected by that.</p>
<p class="western">Right now Chadwick was waiting for her move, still in a relaxed position, his sword nonchalantly lowered and his eyes closed. Sookie stood balancing her sword’s weight and focusing her eyes on an indistinct point at the chest level of his opponent. She could perceive his steady breathing and the strength flowing in his arms, and knew for certain that her attack would fail. But her teacher was challenging her and she would not refuse it.</p>
<p class="western">With a fast whirl Sookie rounded the little man’s back and struck at his side with full force. Then, she ended up face down on the ground with Chadwick’s blade on her nape. After a couple of minutes he released her and Sookie cursed silently while turning to face him.</p>
<p class="western">Chadwick had jumped gracefully a few meters away and now sat on a small rocky outcrop flanking a deep crevice, his sword sheathed. “You’re improving, lassie.”</p>
<p class="western">“Yes, my ability to make mistakes,” said Sookie annoyed.</p>
<p class="western">“What went wrong this time?”</p>
<p class="western">“I thought I would fail before even starting my attack,” she said flatly.</p>
<p class="western">“Your intent was not impeccable, then.” Chadwick did not turn his head and prompted: “And your execution?”</p>
<p class="western">“Hurried and untimely,” replied Sookie.</p>
<p class="western">“Why?”</p>
<p class="western">“I felt challenged by your stance.”</p>
<p class="western">Chadwick giggled childishly. “You tall young lassie fear a little old man like me?”</p>
<p class="western">“The only little thing about you is your sense of humour, master.”</p>
<p class="western">“Let me see your ankle, we have a two hours trek to reach our camp.” Chadwick jumped down the rock and drew near the woman still sitting on the ground.</p>
<p class="western">“What about my ank—” at once Sookie remembered her strained ankle and watched the swollen joint.</p>
<p class="western">“You made a pretty remarkable jump with that foot, I noticed,” said the swordmaster, a little smile showing pointed white teeth. “And you sprained it more than twenty minutes ago.”</p>
<p class="western">The little fairy enfolded Sookie’s ankle with his hands and said: “Lassie, you learn slowly. Ah ah, tall blond and without confidence, uh?”</p>
<p class="western">A deep warm spread from his hands to the whole leg while Sookie watched him silently. The pain recessed and she felt again her limb as a part of her body.</p>
<p class="western">“Stand up, now,” said Chadwick, “we still have a long way to go, eh eh!”</p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western">***</p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western">The walk to the camp was a hike across rough terrain, rocky outcrops and steep descents. Sookie’s ankle was not healed but did not pain much, and she did her best not to concentrate on it. It was one of many little tricks Aine had taught her, as an aside to her language and history’s lessons.</p>
<p class="western">Her cousin, very tall and dark haired as her late godmother (and, as Sookie discovered meeting Dillon’s wife, Binne, a joyful version of her mother), dispensed a lot of fae ways of life and a few interesting tricks, as she called the ways to bend reality with fae magic. Sookie did not show any ability to master magic, but something must have trickled in her mind by chance, like an unconscious comprehension of the basic rules. As a result, Sookie’s charming allure had increased visibly and her ability to master her own body, in terms of strength, endurance and healing, had also improved tangibly.</p>
<p class="western">As a matter of fact, although Sookie still had a self-loathing habit hard to dispel, she felt better in her skin since her arrival in Faery. Aine had explained that for a fairy the closeness of other fairies was always beneficial and compelling, and Sookie had agreed remembering her time with Dermot and Claude, or the cheerfulness Claudine was able to infuse in their encounters.</p>
<p class="western">One of the few fairy Sookie felt very uneasy with was her great-uncle Dermot. Surely, his physical resemblance with Jason did not help as it did not help the fact that he showed a certain attraction to her, or at least, an unmistakable openness to deepen their mutual knowledge in a very physical way. Sookie had to tell him clearly that there was no way she would have sex with a copy of her brother, and he simply replied that it was a pity and that, maybe, after some more time in Faery she would have a better understanding -and use- of the fae ways.</p>
<p class="western">Aine laughed for days as Sookie reported that diplomatic incident, but assured her that no political consequences would have stemmed from it. On the other hand, some family’s related -and maybe political- effects could have resulted from the awkward relationship with her great-grandfather’s son Dillon who, according to genealogy and status, was the apparent heir, as Dermot, to Niall’s throne.</p>
<p class="western">Actually, in his rise to power Dillon had been very clever and prudent, given that he took the title of High Delegate for the Triumvirate Treaty amongst the main fairy clans, leaving the Prince title and position to his father. Yet, it would have been a matter of short time for the treaty to be formalised in its definitive form and Dillon’s position and power, along those of Niall and Dermot, would have been defined in no vague terms.</p>
<p class="western">Dillon’s appearance and demeanour, indeed, were scary and unpredictable. Tall and muscular, with dark hair and biting eyes, his presence was cold and aloof. When he met Sookie at her arrival he tried to befriend her but his smile was so creepy that his wife had to step in and greet the blond guest, introducing their daughter Aine as Sookie’s godmother’s sister. As expected, the human woman saw Claudine’s features in the tall dark haired cousin and warmed to the idea of living with her. Dillon and his chilling presence were soon forgotten, only to resurface as a ringing bell every time Niall came to visit his great-grandchild. Cataliades’ words still sounded in Sookie’s ears and she trimmed her behaviour to fit the alien surroundings she would be living in.</p>
<p class="western">Only after a few months Sookie was able to relax enough to really enjoy her time with Aine, who had become more than her guardian and guide into the Faery realm. And surely her encounter with Preston Pardloe helped to loose her tense senses.</p>
<p class="western">It happened six months after her arrival, a day she was sparring with another Chadwick’s trainee in the grass down a valley, beyond her kin’s estate. Preston approached their makeshift training ground and watched the fighting until Sookie broke her stick on her opponent’s arm and the duel ended.</p>
<p class="western">“I can’t believe it. Is it really you, then?” Preston’s smile was huge and his eyes followed her body’s landmarks with eagerness: face, neck, shoulders, breasts, belly, hips, legs and back up to her face.</p>
<p class="western">Sookie turned to the voice’s direction and gaped at his sight. It took her a few surprised seconds to put in perspective his tall and muscular body, his tawny eyes and chocolate hair. “Preston… ?”</p>
<p class="western">“Glad you remember me, Sookie,” he purred and she blushed up to ears and neck.</p>
<p class="western">“What… how… you…” she stuttered and trailed off as he closed her tightly in his arms, and against his body.</p>
<p class="western">A couple of years before she had found him injured in the woods around her house. It had been Christmas’ time and she did a good deed sheltering him at her place, taking care of his wounds and having sex with him all night long. At that time she had thought he were a Were. He had left the morning after before her wakening and the whole event had been archived as her best Christmas’ eve ever to date.</p>
<p class="western">“That perfect Christmas I was in a mission and couldn’t say anything nor stay longer,” said Preston by way of explanation and lingered with his lips close to hers, inhaling her scent and feeling her back with his hands. She did not stop him in any way.</p>
<p class="western">That evening, dining together with Aine at her house, Sookie learned he was a sky fairy with the ability to shapeshift into anything or anyone and that he often travelled to Earth with special assignments from Niall or other upper echelons. He was back to Faery since a few days when he had spotted her in the grass and had not wanted to miss the chance to speak to her again. Aine left soon after the last glass of wine, and Sookie and Preston sat on the porch, conversing pleasantly as old friends.</p>
<p class="western">“I thought I’d never see you again,” said Sookie finally, turning lightly red.</p>
<p class="western">“So did I,” whispered Preston licking tentatively her earlobe, “and discovering you’re one of my kind is another turn on.”</p>
<p class="western">“Mmm, what’s the other…?” Sookie had turned to him tilting her head to reach his neck and let her tongue wandering lazily around there.</p>
<p class="western">“There are plenty.” He cupped a breast and said: “Your exquisitely good manners, your playful attitude, your shy strength, your stubborn resilience.” Preston put his hands below her bottom and, lifting her weight easily, positioned her on his lap. “But what occupies all my attention now are your sweet curves and your warm welcome. Do you think I can stay for the night?” His voice was husky and his erection pushed Sookie’s core with zeal.</p>
<p class="western">Sookie’s thoughts were foggy but her body rocked rhythmically over his enlarged shaft. “Isn’t it early for Christmas’ gifts?”</p>
<p class="western">Preston moved a hand under her dress, slid his fingers over her sex and gently explored her folds. “Mmm, I think I’m late and I have many to give…”</p>
<p class="western">Sookie unzipped his trousers and led him inside. “I like so much Christmas traditions!”</p>
<p class="western">That first joining did not last long, but the rest of the night rolled slowly and steamy. Sookie and Preston had the time to travel over each other’s bodies at length and with that peculiar satisfaction that only certain festivities could grant.</p>
<p class="western">Their Christmas’ time lasted more than three months and assured Sookie that her mind could find the resources to heal and fortify itself in many ways.</p>
<p class="western">When Preston had to leave Faery due to his work’s schedule, Sookie was not sad but only grateful to have met him again and completed a little journey with him.</p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western">***</p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western">Rhiannon was half fairy, from the water fae clan, and half daemon, and was Sookie’s tutor in telepathy. That ability was not a fae skill, although fairies felt feelings and moods of their own family members. Rhiannon was one of those fairies who never wanted to leave Faery once arrived there, and lived travelling the fae realm dispensing her healing ministrations, a trait that came with her telepathic skill. She could slip into others’ minds and help them to heal injuries, both physical and mental.</p>
<p class="western">Rhiannon’s appearance startled Sookie the first time they met. The water fairy had a translucent quality to her skin and her facial features were elusive, as if seen through rough waters. Only her deep blue eyes and her seaweed brown-greenish hair were unmistakable through the ripples that enveloped her.</p>
<p class="western">As of now, after a year of constant company, Sookie was not fazed any more by her tutor’s appearance and felt her presence as a steady, warm wave of wellness.</p>
<p class="western">During her first year in Faery the blond angry woman had trained alone with those few exercises Cataliades had taught her. <em>Unfolding the mind</em> and <em>Freeing the mind </em>were the daily drills she went through at her wakening, still in bed. Then, relaxed and more alert after a few cups of coffee, she would start her juggler’s routine. Her daemon godfather had called it <em>Combing the mind</em>, and it consisted in identifying and isolating any single source of input from the outside, be it a bird’s twitter or the sound of the wind (better not to use others’ mind waves at her stage), assigning a listening channel to each of them and following them separately but at the same time. At the beginning Sookie was able to hold two or three channels at a time for a couple of minutes, but after the first year she could follow eight sensory channels at once for half an hour or more.</p>
<p class="western">Rhiannon took from there and amplified Sookie’s mind hearing with little incentives and unexpected thrusts. Fairies’ minds unlocked to Sookie in a few weeks. The trick was to relax and detect the leading line of thoughts in the tangle of impressions that was the first image of a fairy’s mind. The danger was to be caught in doing so, as fairies’ minds were stronger than humans’ and their shields naturally vigilant for external threats. Rhiannon’s teachings were more practical than theoretical, and Sookie had to find her ways to accomplish the tasks her tutor set for her.</p>
<p class="western">She soon discovered that her improving charming skills helped in diverting the subject’s attention and allowed her to read others’ thoughts undetected. The refreshing novelty that others’ thoughts had to be chased instead of finding them in her head uninvited, was the single most important finding Sookie revelled in at the beginning of her apprenticeship. More followed.</p>
<p class="western">As her <em>Unfolding</em>, <em>Freeing</em> and <em>Combing</em> routines became deep ruts in her mind, Sookie noticed her shields turned up in an effortless, constant protection she could rely on. Even Rhiannon could not slip in her mind without alerting Sookie of her presence: it felt like an alien itching at the base of her nape.</p>
<p class="western">“Oh little girl, you’re a wee impish imp, it’s devilish of you!” Rhiannon’s delicate voice rolled joyfully on alliteration and concepts’ repetition after swallowing another spoonful of Sookie’s fae version of a pecan pie.</p>
<p class="western">“I’m not little and not even a girl any more, Rhiannon,” countered Sookie cutting another slice of cake, happy at her tutor’s appreciation.</p>
<p class="western">“Indeed, I referred to your head. As for the girl, your appearance is almost childish these days, I should keep a chew toy at hand for when you’ll lose your teeth and will show only pink gums.”</p>
<p class="western">“Com’ on, I don’t look that young.”</p>
<p class="western">“Oh tiny thing, you stomp your feet and curse when you don’t get what you want at the first try,” stated Rhiannon waving a hand, her seaweedy hair flowing around it in slow motion. “<em>And look at you now!</em>” she added in her mind for her apprentice to read.</p>
<p class="western">Sookie was sticking her tongue out in the epitome of childish behaviour. “<em>I do it for you, to prepare you for your future challenge!</em>”</p>
<p class="western">Rhiannon smiled and caressed her belly. “<em>I won’t tolerate fussy moods and tantrums, not even from my children!</em>”</p>
<p class="western">“<em>Uh, we’ll see</em>.”</p>
<p class="western">“Enough with mind talking, we did it all morning and it’s not to become a habit, it could be dangerous and—” the tutor trailed off and stopped her hand over the cake’s dish, almost letting fall the knife. “What are you—?”</p>
<p class="western">“What do you think about it?” Sookie bit her lower lip and waited.</p>
<p class="western">“Daunting devious devil!” The fairy’s eyes lit and smiled in their watery consistence. “How did you—”</p>
<p class="western">“You first. What would you think of a mind signature like that?” Sookie was a bit jittery and her bottom lip reddened under her teeth.</p>
<p class="western">Rhiannon smiled and caressed Sookie’s mind, evaluating the mindprint she was projecting. “As human minds go, I’d say a simpleton, or an autistic brain.”</p>
<p class="western">“An idiot savant? A dumb blond?” suggested Sookie.</p>
<p class="western">“You should add something for a dumb blond,” Rhiannon was grinning openly now, “but it could work if there are not sudden changes. Now explain.”</p>
<p class="western">“Did you remember what you told me when you read me while going through my morning routine with <em>Unfolding</em> and <em>Freeing</em>?” asked Sookie.</p>
<p class="western">“It was on our first meetings, right? I said your mindprint looked… somehow stupid.”</p>
<p class="western">“Mmm, I thought about it,” the blond telepath said simply. “You also suggested that I kept my shields always up, because one may never know from where the danger would come. Assuming that we are in a hostile environment, that is, right?”</p>
<p class="western">The water fairy’s smile faded and, switching again to mind talking, she prompted: “<em>Carry on</em>.”</p>
<p class="western">“<em>What if I set a trap in my mind?</em>” asked Sookie, then continued: “<em>I can set my shields further deep and leave some space to be watched, but offering thoughts of my choosing…</em>”</p>
<p class="western">“<em>Dangerous, mischievous. Lovely</em>.”</p>
<p class="western">“<em>When I feel the itch of someone nudging at my head, I can let her in in my tiny paddock, free to see what she wants.</em>” Sookie’s stare was inquiring. “<em>You may tell me if you see the limits in my pound or weak points to watch out.</em>”</p>
<p class="western">“My cheeky child…” Rhiannon smoothed the folds of her dress and cut another slice of cake. “We’ll be travelling some in the future, I think. What is it in your schedule for next week?”</p>
<p class="western">By her third year in Faery Sookie began spending some days now and then travelling between Faery and Earth, occasionally other dimensions. Her telepathic skills improved exponentially, unlike other fae features, and her spark shone stronger and unwavering.</p>
<p class="western"> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Chapter 8</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="western"> </p><p class="western">
  <span class="u">7. Rights upon Death of A Spouse</span>
</p><p class="western">(a) The Consort waives, discharges, and releases all claims and rights that he might otherwise acquire in the estate of the Queen upon her death during the marriage period, and will leave the queendom without retaining any personal property gained, purchased, or by any means acquired, during the marriage period. (…)</p><p class="western">(d) The Queen, for all intents and purposes from this moment, claims the estate the Consort will be leaving upon his death during the marriage period. (…)</p><p class="western">
  <span class="u">8. Rights upon End of The Marriage</span>
</p><p class="western">The Consort waives, discharges, and releases all claims and rights that he might otherwise acquire in the estate of the Queen upon the end of the marriage. The Consort will be free to leave the queendom retaining the full possession of what remains of Exhibit A or of any other personal estate existing at that time. ( …)</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">(<em>Excerpts from the Marriage Agreement between the Queen Freyda of Oklahoma and her Consort, Eric Northman</em>)</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">Almost two years of marriage had gone by and Eric felt his resistance to it growing dangerously by the day. It had never happened to him before, in his many hardships, not to have the patience to wait for the right time to reassert control over his life. Remembering how he had willingly added a hundred years of marriage to give Sookie extra protection, thinking the whole contract would have been over in a few decades, gave him pause to think about his exaggerated self-confidence and what little of it he felt nowadays.</p><p class="western">In fact, since that first and only message Pamela had sent over a year ago, he had heard nothing else of her, and that was a low blow to his spirits.</p><p class="western">The time needed to weave his way back to freedom was eating away at his very fibre and Eric found himself, more often than advisable, thinking about Sookie and what he could have done to keep her. And to Ocella and how it happened that he had contacted Freyda and offered to trade him. Very useless musings at the moment, he told himself.</p><p class="western">The relationship with Freyda had reached a sort of twisted balance that kept the queen in a sort of continuous confusion and uncertainty about his real commitment to her. Eric acted as a trusty and solicitous enforcer, security counsellor and now supervisor, political and financial adviser when required, without ever failing an assignment. On a more personal basis, Eric’s behaviour in public was respectful even if remote, while in private he had adopted a more aggressive and unpredictable tactic. He was surly and insolent at times, occasionally kind and less detached than usual, then violent other times. He kept the queen on edge all the time and, rarely if ever, met her expectations.</p><p class="western">Also their sexual exchanges had reached a sort of balance, even if the queen was not really satisfied with it. The last time Eric had touched her had been many months ago.</p><p class="western">That night, at one of her several requests to join her in her bedroom, Eric had arrived with a male donor and asked her to have sex with the man. She had obliged and, while the man worked on her furiously - as per Eric’s instructions -, Eric stroked himself. As she was approaching her climax, Eric had sodomised her and finished inside along with the man. Freyda had enjoyed the experience too much and Eric had decided not to repeat it too often.</p><p class="western">Since that night, Eric had not touched her again. Nonetheless, he had made her screw with most of the donors, males and females, under his watch and direction. These erotic games had seemed to satisfy her till a point, but she wanted more. Eric knew that, and knew also that he had to give in and offer something more to keep her hooked.</p><p class="western">Besides, Freyda often tried to trade his sexual performances for advancements in his formal engagements, hinting at diplomatic missions out of state and so on. Eric had never taken the bait but now, thinking at the informal meeting a few monarchs of the Zeus clan were holding in La Junta, Colorado in a few weeks, he was tempted.</p><p class="western">He was instructing Barnes on the rulers and their lieutenants, the public -and less known- policies they pursued and the power balance among them. Freyda had stated Eric’s presence was not required and he had nodded without a word. It was a stupid game on her part as it was Freyda who needed him, not the other way round. Even if a chance to meet Texas was really appealing. Eric knew that but waited her move showing little interest.</p><p class="western">Two nights before leaving Barnes, smirking quietly, told the consort to pack for the meeting. They were in Eric’s office, reorganising the last papers for the meeting and closing the week’s reports to the queen. Eric nodded and continued to sieve through some papers.</p><p class="western">The queen was a slow and stubborn learner. But Eric was a patient teacher. Or, at least, he pretended the patience he did not feel and tried to learn his lesson. In fact teaching, as well as learning, was a two ways path: for each lesson imparted there was at worst one to learn as well. Usually more.</p><p class="western">In his case, Eric was learning that time was quite overrated as healer and the queen’s arrogance was counterbalanced by his own impatience. Also, that keeping sharpness of mind and unwavering determination required a constant, painful toiling on his part and, finally, that discovering his own vulnerability only fuelled his thirst for blood.</p><p class="western">And that was a thirst he thought to have quenched a few centuries earlier. Hence, another little, unpleasant lesson to absorb: no amount of culture and conditioning could bend his true essence.</p><p class="western">Feral. Selfish. Impervious to sobriety.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">***</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">The location chosen for the meeting was a secluded gated community outside La Junta, Colorado. The entire compound was owned by the king, Hu Ke Xu, a Chinese vampire of unusual height for his eastern ancestry and striking features that hinted of a certain European influx along his bloodline.</p><p class="western">The participating monarchs were all neighbours and shared common businesses. Texas’ king, Joseph Velasquez, was the younger ruler, but having served as lieutenant to the former king for a long time he was known and respected for his loyalty and bravery. Adrianne Bakkali, the queen of Wyoming, was an allegedly French-Moroccan vampiress who had been turned in her early thirties, still beautiful but lacking freshness. Her strong French accent and her sweet behaviour misled many to consider her too delicate for her position, thus forcing her to punctuate the first decade of her reign with limited tolerance and repeated bloodshed: only when she had entered her second decade of reign, many vampires had resumed breathing levelly.</p><p class="western">Because of some trouble on the Mexican border don Juan, the king of New Mexico, had sent his representative to the meeting: a native Apache named Nantan, dark skinned with a long nose and generous lips, compounded with intimidating and unrelenting dark eyes. If the appearance of the vampire had to be regarded as a message to the other monarchs, they should have considered it both a warning and a challenge. Eric liked the dark vampire at first sight and nodded his head to him as they were introduced by their host, Hu Ke Xu.</p><p class="western">Every ruler and their retinues of five or six underlings had been hosted in two villas each, while the farthest mansion from the entrance to the compound was used as conference and meeting accommodation.</p><p class="western">On the second night, the two main meetings were among Wyoming and Colorado, about some joint-ventures Adrianne was proposing to Xu, and New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma, over extraction and processing of natural gas in their territories.</p><p class="western">Joseph Velasquez entered the large and richly decorated sitting room assigned to their meeting and closed the door behind him. He was the second guest to arrive. Eric sat on an elegant chair looking at his laptop on the coffee table, and stood up greeting the king.</p><p class="western">“Joseph,” Eric bowed slightly, “I never had the chance to offer you my condolences for Stan. I knew about it before leaving Louisiana and had no opportunity to—”</p><p class="western">“Thank you,” Joseph nodded his head. “Pam told me something about your marriage and its consequences. My condolences to you.”</p><p class="western">Eric acquiesced pursing his lips.</p><p class="western">“Pam tells you <em>we walk steadily</em>,” whispered Joseph, then continued at a higher voice: “And I have to thank you for that business of the oil field across our states. My lieutenant informed me that it was your intervention, more than one year ago, that solved the stalling and won us all the claims.”</p><p class="western">“Think nothing of it.” Eric smiled and remembered how he had forced Freyda to accept all requests from the two texan companies upon discovering that the national company, the same the queen was defending too eagerly, was her personal property through a vampire figurehead, and not a third party’s as declared at the beginning of the binding arbitration started by the two monarchs. Barnes had supported him and the queen had caved in through her teeth. “How’s Pam?”</p><p class="western">The message just delivered meant that Pamela had understood his message and was working on it. Eric, though, feared to hope and concentrated on what had to be done on his part.</p><p class="western">“Fine. And you’ve got some friends willing to help,” answered Joseph lowering his voice to a whisper, again.</p><p class="western">“How so?” Eric thought his child was trying to free him and his heart beat joyful. “Tell her not to risk anything.”</p><p class="western">“What Freyda and Nevada did is known by a strict number of vampires, and no one appreciated it,” murmured Joseph. Then he added: “And both have some enemies, who would be other friends to you.”</p><p class="western">“I have no means of communication, and even this conversation is dangerous for me,” Eric’s voice was barely audible for a vampire.</p><p class="western">“Freyda is being entertained by Wyoming, we’ve got ten more minutes. And the scrambler in my pocket blocks all communications in and out in a radius of six or eight metres.” Joseph then smiled. “In case Colorado put some recording devices in our meeting rooms.”</p><p class="western">“Thoughtful. What else?”</p><p class="western">“There is a group of kings working… for you. When you’re back to Oklahoma, you’ll be assigned a new day-guard, a trusty one. She will deliver your communications to me and Pam, and vice versa.” Joseph said quickly.</p><p class="western">“I’ve not agreed to anything. Why this help, then?”</p><p class="western">“Your child is relentless when she wants something. And she has a vault rich of useful informations…”</p><p class="western">Eric nodded and smiled. Before parting he had given her access to some of his more guarded treasures: a few hard disks and more traditional ledgers containing knowledge accumulated over a few decades about many vampires, not all of whom had come out of the coffin during or after the Great Reveal. Bill Compton was not the only one hunting information in their world, but Eric did not intend to sell it. Unless strictly necessary and in exchange for more than money.</p><p class="western">“And what are you, exactly? One of my friend or Freyda’s enemy?”</p><p class="western">“Actually, both. Even if I have to say that my rationale is more oriented against your wife…” Texas smiled, and continued: “But I’ve always liked you, and in our interactions you’ve always been honourable. I won’t be as old as you, but I want to get there, and I know I have to work on it every day. Let’s say I’m thinking about my future.”</p><p class="western">Eric nodded, and asked: “What exactly is happening?”</p><p class="western">“Nevada is expanding too much, and behaving… imprudently, towards many and in many ways. Freyda has displeased former allies and has not yet the strength to stand alone. Do you agree with this last point?”</p><p class="western">Eric nodded.</p><p class="western">“Some people I have in Oklahoma tell me you are moving very… wisely, and have already some loyal friends.”</p><p class="western">“No one I can count on, for now.” Eric wondered who were Texas’ spies at court.</p><p class="western">The two vampires fell silent as some steps approaching their room echoed on the wooden floor of the hallway. The door opened and Freyda entered, Nantan following right after.</p><p class="western">“Oklahoma,” Joseph bowed imperceptibly. “Nantan.”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">***</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“My king sends his congratulation for your marriage,” Nantan spoke as if uttering each word were a great effort. “Especially for you, Northman.”</p><p class="western">Eric’s face remained unresponsive.</p><p class="western">“Many courted Oklahoma. Don Juan too, right?” Texas’ tone was incongruously cheerful. “But she was very finicky…”</p><p class="western">“Yes. Unfortunately, this wonderful lady did not fall for his charms.” Nantan said in a regretful tone.</p><p class="western">“Don Juan is in good company, I heard. Great Nebraska, Arizona, even Minnesota advanced some proposal at one time or another.” Velasquez said conversationally, readying to leave the room as the meeting was over.</p><p class="western">“And I heard that Tennessee took it badly, the rejection I mean. Northman, how did you conquer the heart of a queen?” Nantan spoke dismissively.</p><p class="western">Eric wondered whose benefit this conversation served, and played along. “My hair. I guess it was my blond hair the queen coveted.” His tone, though, was not facetious nor perky, just matter-of-fact.</p><p class="western">Freyda began to wiggle her little finger on the armrest, smiling graciously.</p><p class="western">“Also Wyoming and Colorado seemed very interested in Oklahoma, if I didn’t mistake their behaviours. They looked disappointed.” Again Nantan spoke as if pushed by invisible weapons.</p><p class="western">“What about Nevada?” Texas let it out nonchalantly, reorganising his papers in a folder.</p><p class="western">Eric made a surprised look, and cracked a lopsided smile. Freyda went behind his chair and put a hand on his nape. “Yes, it was his hair. Isn’t it irresistible?” Her tone was frivolous but her little finger still wiggled angrily, so Eric understood that listening to the long list of Freyda’s foes did not please his pretentious but cautious queen. He removed her hand from his neck, smiling to Nantan and Joseph, and ran a hand through his loose hair. It was a shining golden blond, and its tips touched the shoulder. Maybe someone else was interested to his luscious hair, Eric’s smile widened as the queen stood behind him watching the two vampires with narrowed eyes.</p><p class="western">When they were alone Freyda blurted out: “I don’t understand all that chatting about our marriage and those others.”</p><p class="western">Eric thought it was useless to pretend not to have understood and countered evenly, planting seeds of doubts into her too big a head. “It was a long list of kings you have displeased. Maybe it was a way to remind you what work you have ahead.”</p><p class="western">“But it’s not their business.”</p><p class="western">“If they do business with you, it’s in their interest your… ability to stay on the market.”</p><p class="western">“That’s why you’re here!” she snapped, then reconsidered her attitude and purred: “And I’m sure you will be up to your fame.”</p><p class="western">“It’d be feasible if I knew what really happens, queen.”</p><p class="western">“It’s a conversation for when we’re back home.”</p><p class="western">“As you wish… but Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico are here now. Maybe to show some good will…” Eric threw that out casually and stood preparing to leave the room.</p><p class="western">Freyda thought it through briefly. “Yes, you might show some good will if they approach you.” She smiled and offered: “Dinner?”</p><p class="western">“I’m fine, thank you.” He knew it was not wise to refuse her again, but he wanted to send a message to his potential friends, both showing his leash was slack and grabbing the opportunity to learn something more.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">***</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“You reek of Adrianne.” Freyda’s voice was high pitched and angry. They were alone on a small plane heading back to Oklahoma.</p><p class="western">Eric watched her surprised and replied flatly: “So what?”</p><p class="western">His last night in La Junta had been quite interesting and satisfying. Adrianne Bakkali, the queen of Wyoming, was a luscious vampiress with the right soft spots on her porcelain white body. Generous breasts, round derriere and long strong legs Eric could not overlook, but what convinced him mostly was her womanly sweetness, her total abandon. He was immediately carried away to another time, another female.</p><p class="western">Eric had gorged himself on that body as he had not done since long, long time. Her taste was not as sweet as the woman he still desired, her smell was not as intoxicating as he would have wished, but his mind lost every bitterness and anxiety for a few hours. It was more than he had had in the last two years.</p><p class="western">“Didn’t you tell me to show good will?” Eric thought about what knowledge the French-Moroccan vampiress had let slip intentionally.</p><p class="western">“Fucking Wyoming was beyond what I meant.”</p><p class="western">That show of jealousy was annoying and incongruous, and Eric considered to push it some more. “Then consider it my thank you to our hosts.”</p><p class="western">“The Chinese was hosting, not her!” Freyda snapped.</p><p class="western">“They’re talking about marriage, so it—”</p><p class="western">“Colorado and Wyoming?” Freyda froze and a look of fear passed through her face, soon replaced by her usual more guarded countenance.</p><p class="western">“So I understood, but it’s still early to drink to their union.”</p><p class="western">“Did you gather some insights, at least?”</p><p class="western">“Yes. She seemed to be eager to settle things with you, but didn’t tell what about. Care to explain?”</p><p class="western">“Did you enjoy your <em>talking</em>?” Freyda pretended to be cool and dispassionate, and Eric ignored her. “What does she have that I don’t? She looks even older than me!”</p><p class="western">Eric would have laughed out loud if he had not already damaged his thin hold on his queen, and a whining vampiress was decidedly more than he could stomach at the moment. He had to touch her again, and some months of pause seemed suddenly a very short respite.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">***</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">Minuette Macon was a werecougar from Texas and Eric’s new day-guard. She was a dark blond female with yellow eyes and a lean, sinuous body, her gait light and feral. Eric would have guessed she was a feline with his eyes shut.</p><p class="western">When Ford introduced her they were in the training ground outside of town and Eric invited her to a sparring session. She was agile and extremely economical in her moves and, although their height difference was remarkable, her nimbleness made up for a good exchange. She reminded him of his older child, and Eric offered to polish her fighting style. Minuette bowed and nodded, her breath still ragged.</p><p class="western">Later that night, slightly before dawn, she arrived at Eric’s house in Tuttle, a south-west neighbourhood he chose mainly for its distance from most of Freyda’s residences. He showed her the house with all the surveillance cameras and other security systems installed after his arrival. His resting rooms were in the basement, but linked to his study in the attic by a hidden winding staircase. All doors had a retina coded lock plus a vocally activated device that released a toxic gas, mortal to humans and less lethal to vampires, who could hold their breath up to a few hours without problems. Technology helped to reduce guards’ number but a brain was still necessary to coordinate more subtle defences.</p><p class="western">Minuette stood at the center of the living room, waiting for orders.</p><p class="western">“That’s all, for now,” Eric said. “Anything to ask?”</p><p class="western">“No, sir.” The werecougar fished in her pocket and showed a little device with a pulsing green button. “That’s for you, courtesy of your friend.” It was a portable scrambler. “And this one in case of emergency.” She produced a mobile phone.</p><p class="western">“A secure burner, mmm,” Eric murmured, and she nodded. “Whose number is the one already in its memory?” He was scrolling the screen of the phone.</p><p class="western">“Your friend’s burner, sir.”</p><p class="western">“Anything else?”</p><p class="western">“Two of your friends are looking for something that should have been handled to them at the time of the takeover.”</p><p class="western">Eric gestured to carry on.</p><p class="western">“It should be a recording device of sort. A book, a hard-disk, a memory card, anything that serves to record something.” Minuette talked slowly, as if trying hard to remember what she had to say. “Wyoming would like to have it.”</p><p class="western">“One object only?” Eric asked.</p><p class="western">“She thinks so.”</p><p class="western">“I have a question,” he said, and Minuette nodded. “Ocella. Who did contact him?” Eric was not sure that someone had pushed him to come, but something in his maker’s behaviour suggested him so. And he wanted to thank personally that someone. Very personally.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Chapter 9</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>After three and a half years in Faery Sookie had become quite fluent in the Fae language and began to really see through the nuances of the idiom which, not unexpectedly, had the same subtleties of the fairy culture. She also began thinking in that language and had sadly noticed that she was forgetting terms in her native language. Therefore, she had asked Niall to provide her with books in English to mirror the same matters she studied with Aine (fae history involving politics, economics, magic, in their dimension and on Earth, as many times both overlapped and influenced each other, at least in the past). Up close, indeed, fairy and human histories were not very different: a series of never ending wars, dubious rulers, richness and poverty unequally shared. The main distinction was that humans had lost the knowledge of their magical nature long ago and relied mostly on technology to fill the hole left in their wisdom. Whereas fairies had lost their grace and relied on cold calculations and mere strength. Two faces of the same coin, with very similar aftermaths.</p>
<p>Some old philosophers even speculated that fairy and humans, being able to interbreed and having so similar natures, could have had common origins and only at a later stage they had parted and then thrived in different dimensions. Speculations, Sookie thought, and unsettling images of sharp teeth and cutting claws crossed briefly her mind.</p>
<p>She had definitely and fully accepted her part fae nature, and had become even proud and jealous of it, in a way. She had come to understand, without any more doubts, that it did not took away any of her human features, but knew as well that her human side had been different from the average human even before knowing of her fae heritage. Maybe the Sookie who came to Faery had changed, but she felt she was becoming more and more herself. A self she had no reason to fight and that she was learning a little more about every day.</p>
<p>Chadwick’s lessons with blades of every shape and style had focused on those weapons Sookie’s frame could handle better, and the fighting techniques had aimed at developing her best advantages: light weight on long and strong legs meant she could move faster and longer than heavier opponents, mental reading meant she could anticipate her opponents’ moves, cold-bloodedness in difficult situations meant she could think clearly and better evaluate her possible course of action.</p>
<p>She had still to work on self-esteem issues and on a randomly misplaced sense of guilt, her teacher had pointed out. Sookie could not see how those psychological flaws might hinder her fighting abilities, though Chadwick’samused giggles let her without other choice than doubling her efforts to win her opponents. Her fighting technique, Chadwick had told her, was not elegant but surprisingly effective when she was in a good mood, and sadly hurried and ineffectual when tired or in foul mood.</p>
<p>“Lassie, do you know when it will take place your fight for life?”</p>
<p>“No!” Sookie snapped with a childish tone. She was kneeling on a muddy patch of ground, under the dim light of the night stars, and did not know wherewere her dagger and chain. Moreover, she was cold and angry at herself. </p>
<p>“It could be now.” The voice she heard at her right side in that moment was Chadwick’s, but the cold metallic taste that wrapped it did not belong to her master. She felt the movement in her mind before hearing a blade cutting through the air where her head had been a fraction of second earlier. She rolled to the right, where the fairy had been before, and stood up keeping her knees slightly bent and her arms in a forward, defensive position. Her mind listened, amplifying her awareness, and her body leapt ahead arching its back and turning to catch a hand on the hilt of a short sword. Sookie accompanied the forward move of Chadwick’s hand with hers until it lost its momentum, then bent his wrist backward. The fairy released the blade while Sookie kneed him on the side. Then, he turned and faced the blond woman with a crooked smile, hardly visible in the dim light. Sookie quickly wielded a short knife to his throat and pressed hard, cutting skin and soft tissue. A drop of blood fell over the blade.</p>
<p>“How were my thoughts, lassie?” Chadwick’s voice cut through the air coldly.</p>
<p>“Red… murderous…” Sookie did not release her grip on him until she heard his thoughts losing the violent intent.</p>
<p>“You respond correctly only if the stakes are real because you feel them.” The earth fairy spoke calmly and smiled. “Where did you get that knife?”</p>
<p>Sookie thought for a while, then said: “You were thinking of it, it was under your belt.”</p>
<p>“Very good, lassie.”</p>
<p>“Did you really want to kill me, master?” Sookie asked, her voice broken with sorrow.</p>
<p>“You tell me.”</p>
<p>Sookie nodded once.</p>
<p>“Good. Do not force me to do that every time, lassie. I’m old and frail, too much drama is dangerous for my nerves.” Chadwick turned and strode carefree on the path that led to her house. “You’re ready to shape your fighting form.”</p>
<p>Sookie was silent, still unsettled and thoughtful. Her teacher decided if speaking or not according to the lesson’s goal or whatever fancied that old fairy. Therefore she waited, hoping to have finished for that night.</p>
<p>“When you fight for your life, you have to release all your strength. Your fighting image helps to unleash your potential… and scares your opponents, hopefully.”</p>
<p>They were half way home when the Dancer resumed his speech. “Have you ever seen a fairy true face?”</p>
<p>Sookie thought of Bellenos, and of some other fairies his cousin Claude had hosted at his club. “I think so.”</p>
<p>“Those were their fighting forms. Those can be pushed ahead as a warning, a challenge, an enticement. It depends on the fairy’s… tastes.”</p>
<p>Sookie was too tired to ask questions.</p>
<p>“Your taste, lassie, is… fighting. Therefore your true form will come up when cornered or, if you’ll master it, when you decide to let it out.” The little fairy danced lightly over the rocky path. “And it will be a sight. Eh eh eh.”</p>
<p>Sookie saw the house lights before hearing the music coming from it. The feeling of home warmed her belly and washed away the fighting fatigue.</p>
<p>“You’ll have to understand how it works and how to master it. It will be another weapon in your arsenal.” The moon light caught Chadwick’s contented smile, and his oddly aged childish face. “But now I need a shower, a soup and a bed. And you either.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Aine had gone to Earth only a few times in all her life, and was very curious about all things human. Therefore, each time Sookie came back from a little trip she interviewed her thoroughly. Most times the blond woman could barely report the location, as those were chosen by Rhiannon and held little interest for her. Her fae-dae tutor could teleport, but given Sookie’s resistance to it they had to rely on portals and ask Niall or Dillon a special permission to use them. They had never gone to the States (it was both Niall and Dillon’s veto) and they could not stay more than a few days given the time lag between Faery and Earth.</p>
<p>During the last one and a half years Rhiannon had taken Sookie to several locations to experiment with different brain waves. The blond telepath had become stronger and more confident by the day. Fairies, humans, weres and shifters were now easy to read and shield from, while daemons and vampires were still a problem. Sookie had told her tutor that a few times she had caught a stray thought from vampires, even before her coming to Faery, but it had been a random happening and had not seemed related to any volition on the telepath’s side. Usually, vampires minds were a void: an empty, peaceful, resting haven. Daemons, on the contrary, were a swarm on fleeting thoughts coiled one inside the other. Mind talking was easy and natural with them, but reading their minds still proved beyond Sookie’s reach.</p>
<p>Their last journey, therefore, had been to a daemon stronghold on Earth, and Desmond Cataliades had hosted them both at his residence there. It was a Scottish village on the Highlands, or so it seemed. A place out of time. Actually Sookie thought it was exactly out of time, at least considering the human perceived linear timeline. </p>
<p>Meeting her godfather in person after all those years was emotionally challenging for Sookie, although they had always corresponded with the means offered by fairies, who kept in contact with their Earth businesses. Sookie hugged the sturdy daemon and rested on his prominent belly weeping quietly.</p>
<p>“My dear! I’m so happy to see you are very well.” Cataliades had pushed the telepath a little back and watching her intently added: “You look radiant.”</p>
<p>Sookie did not even try to wipe the tears from her cheeks and, sniffing gently, spoke in a little voice: “Desmond, I’m so happy to see you, really.”</p>
<p>They sat at a table near the grand fireplace at the southern corner of the hall. The restaurant chosen by Cataliades was cozy and crowded, the muffled noise of conversations giving it a lively vibe without being annoying. The daemon smiled looking at the women at his table. “Rhiannon is enthusiast of you my dear, and I’m so proud you blossomed into a strong and wonderful being.” His eyes had a sweetness that moved Sookie to another bout of crying.</p>
<p>“Rhiannon, please tell him I’m not a weepy child these days.”</p>
<p>“He already knows you’re working hard and achieving your potential. He asks about you all the time, weepy willow.”</p>
<p>“Thank you, Desmond. I hope to get to spend more time with you, one day.” Sookie squeezed his hand and cleaned her face of any expression. “Let’s start, I know you don’t have much time.”</p>
<p>“Unfold and free your mind, my dear.”</p>
<p>Sookie nodded and stood still, her neck and shoulders relaxed.</p>
<p>“Focus on me. I will be easier as you have my blood.” Cataliades held her hand, then unfolded and freed his mind.</p>
<p>“Waves of warmness, little wavering bubbles… joy, a bubble opened and it’s full of glee!” Sookie smiled.</p>
<p>“It’s my delight in being with you, and the easiest feeling to notice. I opened that bubble for you. Come close and open a bubble yourself, this way.”</p>
<p>“I see.” Sookie’s eyes were focused on her plate and seemed to see through it.</p>
<p>Cataliades and Sookie went on for a while exchanging observations. After half an hour Sookie shook her head and said: “I need a pause, it’s not working this way.”</p>
<p>Rhiannon and Cataliades exchanged a look, then the daemon stood up and waved a hand at Sookie. “Follow me.”</p>
<p>They went down a hallway at the right of the lobby and reached a little room, sparsely furnished but welcoming. “Sit down and hear me out.”</p>
<p>Cataliades took both her hands in his and said: “I lost the love of my life long ago… and when I gave Fintan and Adele my blood it was a way to thank him for his… friendship and presence in my life. I cannot have children. Their descendants would have had some blood of my line: this was his gift to me.”</p>
<p>Sookie nodded, as she already heard that story.</p>
<p>“I’m half-daemon and my blood is not as strong as a full-blooded daemon, but strong enough. Daemons are telepathic only among their species and most strongly among their family. That is why I read you, and Diantha, Barry, and other relatives. When we want to extend this ability to others, we exchange blood. It’s a very important gift, never done lightly. You inherited this skill but, given your mixed heritage and the strong magic you stirred with your fae spark, you telepathy is stronger than most. That is why you could not protect yourself as a child, even if for us is a natural safeguard to develop.”</p>
<p>Sookie nodded again, wondering and fearing the turn the conversation was taking.</p>
<p>“Did you make peace with your ability? Are you really enjoying what you can do?”</p>
<p>Sookie smiled and blushed.</p>
<p>“Had you a choice, would you be tempted to give up your telepathy?” insisted the daemon.</p>
<p>Sookie stood up and looked at his godfather with a calm gaze. “No, Desmond. It’s part of me, like a leg or a kidney. Rhiannon asked if I wanted her to healthe scars Neave and Lochlan had left on my body, and I accepted. But when she asked if I wanted to erase or soften the memory of their torture, I refused. Those scars in my memory are part of me now, I accepted them and erasing them would have been changing me in an unnatural way. I dull that memory with my strength without giving up that part of me, the part that was terrified but stood and overcome the fear. With my telepathy is the same: excising it from me would be… like crippling my mind.”</p>
<p>“I offer you some more drops of my blood. This will strengthen the very tiny daemon in you and allow you to reach out and touch that part of you, too.”</p>
<p>“Other consequences?”</p>
<p>Cataliades laughed. “Potentially it could enhance also your fae side, but you won’t become a daemon!”</p>
<p>“Desmond, I… I…”</p>
<p>“Don’t feel pushed to accept. My feelings for you won’t change if you refuse and I will always—”</p>
<p>“I do accept. Besides, you’re already part of me, it will be a renewal of our ties in a more conscious way on my side.”</p>
<p>Cataliades squeezed stronger her hands, trying to hide his embarrassment. “You know, I met Einin just once, but there’s so much of her in you!”</p>
<p>At Sookie’s inquisitive look, Cataliades continued: “Fintan’s mother, I’ve already told you. She was the human woman Niall fell in love with and who gave him Fintan and Dermot.”</p>
<p>“Yes, even Niall told something about it, I think.”</p>
<p>Cataliades opened a small cabinet and retrieved two goblets and a bottle of wine, punctured his thumb with a sharp tooth and let fall three drops in one glass, then poured some wine in both and turned to Sookie.</p>
<p>“To you Sookie, I wish you to find and keep all you want in life!”</p>
<p>“Oh, and my wish for you is to find another love to complete you.”</p>
<p>“Sookie, wishes could be a potent spell if uttered with true intent.” Cataliades laughed and added: “And I fear the… person you could wish for me!”</p>
<p>They smiled and drank. Sookie felt a tingling sensation in her mouth that lasted for many hours. A different stinging she felt in her chest, but she waved it away and worked hard for the rest of the day with her daemon side.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Aine’s lessons in fae etiquette and cultural habits were interesting, yet her words depicted ways not very distant from the average accepted or tolerated behaviours in any human society: only, some times they seemed old cultural legacies humans had mostly discarded.</p>
<p>Fairies were a fierce warrior race. That was quite at odds with the sugar coated version humans had been fed with, but some old legends and myths effectively portrayed magical creatures that lived with the blood of their enemies at their feet, and fairies were very much them. Now that Sookie thought about it, every society had plenty of enemies to choose from, both internal and external. Fae did not stand out for originality nor innovation on the matter.</p>
<p>Fairies were not very liberal and progressivist in their political views, and still deferred to an aristocratic class. It was also true that that noble class still discussed and settled disputes wielding blades and powerful incantations, so their power appeared well earned and preserved. Sookie, though, had to recognise that delving in their history was both instructive and entertaining.</p>
<p>However, trying to apply rules and protocols to actual situations proved difficult. The Triumvirate Treaty had changed things in a way, but had reverted to old habits in another way. Now, each clan had a representative who was in the triumvirate and collectively they took those decisions that involved all fairies, while princes ruled each clan independently. Niall was the Prince of the Sky Fairies and Dillon was the Appointed Delegate to the Triumvirate for the Sky Fairies. The friction was in the detail. Dillon did not take orders from his father, and therefore Niall’s range of political manoeuvring was limited to choosing the date of major festivities and the wine to bring for dinner, as elegantly noted in Dermot’s thoughts. Sookie had noticed Dermot’s contentment at the onset of the Treaty’s proper functioning, although his formal behaviour was supportive of his father’s position. Sookie had tried to slip into Dermot’s mind a few times, distracting his attention with frivolous conversations on upcoming celebrations and her position in their extended family. She had not caught much beyond some sharp satisfied comments on Niall’s power loss and waves of lust and regret about her refusal to befriend him in more direct ways. That had seemed another good reason not to dwell in relatives or friends’ minds more than strictly advisable, as it had been Sookie’s policy since long time.</p>
<p>Then, more than one year ago, another variable had increased her disorientation in the already confused situation the fae political arena presented to her eyes.</p>
<p>Aengus.</p>
<p>Aine had been excited for a few days before inviting Sookie to a formal family dinner at their house. Her cousin had even chosen a dress for Sookie and, to the telepath’s confusion, her thoughts had been genuinely joyous even if tinged with a smear of regret. Sookie was under the impression to have seen an image of Dillon in Aine’s mind, and that she was feeling something similar to contrition. Their relationship was tense sometimes, Sookie had already gathered that much; but father/daughter relationship showed always some conflict, so Sookie understood that that evening would have been delicate and important to her cousin and she resolved to be supportive and understanding.</p>
<p>“Oh Sookie, I’m so happy my brother is back to Faery!” Aine almost jumped on the spot while showing the dress and choosing which jewel Sookie would wear with it. Fairies loved jewels and Niall and Dermot, as her most old relatives, had given her precious stones at every official celebration. To date her most appreciated ornament was a necklace with a light blue stone, an aquamarine or a blue diamond, Sookie could not say.</p>
<p>However, she was touched by the attention Aine was giving to her grooming, as if she meant to make a statement at her family’s eyes. And Sookie knew how important was for Aine to fulfil her parents’ expectations, much more so given that her (and their) benchmark was the late Claudine. Aine had been given the task to instruct Sookie in all things fae for everyday use and to host her at her place, as Claudine had been given the task to protect her. Claudine had died carrying out her commitment. Sookie could only imagine the pressure Aine was feeling as well as the certainty that she would never equal to her late sister. Therefore Sookie played along.</p>
<p>“A brother?” Sookie had never heard of him, nor glimpsed anything about him in her family’s members’ thoughts. Not even in Aine’s. “How is it that you never mentioned him?”</p>
<p>“He doesn’t dwell much in Faery. He has businesses to attend to on Earth.”</p>
<p>“Uh. An entrepreneur or a fae envoy on official assignments?”</p>
<p>“Both, I guess.” Aine smiled only with her mouth. “It’s not polite to talk of people who are not here and… might not come back.”</p>
<p>Actually Sookie had never heard a mention of the triplets, Claude, Claudine and Claudette, or of Fintan, and now of this Aengus.</p>
<p>“Does he do something dangerous?”</p>
<p>“Earth is dangerous. Always,” said Aine flatly.</p>
<p>The dinner was pleasant even if a little stiff. Everybody was present: Niall, Dermot, Dillon and Binne, and obviously Aengus. Sookie expected a Claude lookalike, so she had prepared to school her features in order to avoid any unpleasant grimace.</p>
<p>However, Aengus was not anything like Claude. He had the tall muscular body of the Brigant males, the dark colours of his mother in his eyes and hair, and the coldness of his father. He walked into the living room with the placid gait of a sleepy feline, watched around and, spotting the blond part-fae, smiled coldly.</p>
<p>“Sookie.” In a few strides he was in front of her scanning her body in a very unequivocal way. “I couldn’t understand all the fuss about you, but I see it now.” He kissed her on a cheek managing to make it very little pure.</p>
<p>Sookie stood astonished and speechless. Definitely not something she had seen coming.</p>
<p>During the meal Aengus barely talked to her, whereas Niall and Dermot seemed unusually talkative between them. Binne was her usual self being kind and lovely without putting feelings into it. Dillon, on the contrary, made a real effort to be less scary, with moderate success, and watched the blond part-fae with interest and amusement. It was almost a year Sookie and her great-uncle had not met and she filled his silence speaking about fae education and journeys to Earth.</p>
<p>At the end of the dinner, and after some more drinking, most guests left and Sookie found herself alone with Aengus in the small garden room.</p>
<p>“Your spark is remarkable,” he said with a cold and distant voice, “to be only little fae, one eighth, mmm?”</p>
<p>“So I’ve been told.” Sookie was annoyed by his contradictory behaviour, butsuddenly he was at her side, in her private space, caressing her loose hair.</p>
<p>“My sister is very fond of you,” whispered Aengus on her ear while his body touched hers in several parts.</p>
<p>Sookie schooled her face and ignored his provocation. His cold voice was at the same time smooth and silky, as was his hand, now circling ominously on her back. “So am I of her, but this doesn’t automatically extend to you.”</p>
<p>“Cheeky. It suits me.” He licked her ear. “And you taste good… I’d like to sample more.”</p>
<p>“Your fae habits are wasted on me, I don’t have sex with relatives. Get off your hands and turn your attention elsewhere,” said Sookie calmly and without moving a finger. Indeed, she did not even think of walking away.</p>
<p>“Yes, Dermot said you turned him down.” Aengus’ head was bent forward smelling her hair. Noisily.</p>
<p>“And do not think to try any fae incantation with me!” Sookie’s rising anger cut her breath and, bending her neck backward to hold his gaze, she felt ridiculous. Not a convenient sensation when trying to look dispassionate.</p>
<p>“Do you think I need a spell? Give me more credit.” He was smiling eerily, and his eyes were so black as to cause dizziness. Or nuisance.</p>
<p>“Leave my space and fuck you,” spat out Sookie, furious with herself for being so attracted by this arrogant and pushy cousin, who was still lingering over her mouth with his lips. It was all very awkward as she was rejecting him only verbally, and he was obviously exploiting her evident fascination. He was handsome and totally unwelcoming.</p>
<p>“I’d prefer collaboration. A lot of collaboration, Sookie,” he breathed on her ear. Then, with the hand that was not stroking her back he took her hand and positioned it over his full erection.</p>
<p>She blushed and gaped at Aengus in silence, more and more annoyed at her vulnerability. Then, she managed to raise an eyebrow.</p>
<p>“I’ve got a few ideas, if you let me show you…”</p>
<p>Sookie tried to recover her presence of mind and, retracting her hand, whispered: “I suggest you become very familiar with your hands. Both, to have more fun.”</p>
<p>Aengus lifted his hands stepping back. “It’s a pity. Tonight I felt very… happy to meet a new family member.” He turned and strode to the door. “If you change your mind I’ll be sleeping in the room across the hallway.”</p>
<p>Sookie leant on the wall of the garden room fighting to bridle her raging emotions. It was some years she had not lost her temper so abruptly, but she had to recognise she was awfully excited. And just then she realised she had not picked up a single thought from Aengus, but only his lust and determination, both of considerable size.</p>
<p>She went to bed after a quick shower and with a lot of insane ideas. After some hours of fitful sleep she fell into a wet dream. It was some time she did not indulge in one, so she let it be in a semi-conscious way. Waves of pleasure rolled through her body as an orgasm built its way steadily. Her brain rocked gently in and out of a sort of weird unconscious consciousness along with her pleasure, and Sookie let a hand slip down. The pleasure was mounting wildly and Sookie moaned, her hand over silky long hair. Some fingers moved inside her, both front and back, a mouth sucked avidly her clit. Long, slow strokes. She could not stand much more. Then a tongue licked her folds forcefully, a hard wetnessaccompanied by experienced moves. It was so good, so real, so right. Sookie yelled as her orgasm exploded hard and long.</p>
<p>For a couple of minutes she could not understand where she was, pleasure still rolling softly over her. Her hand rested over a head with soft long hair while a tongue washed her cleft gently. Sookie’s heart stopped. It should not be possible: she was in Faery. And vampires could not enter it. Eric?</p>
<p>“Good. You taste very good, Sookie.” The cold voice was unmistakable, as it was the chilling laugh that followed. “And now tell me you want some more.”</p>
<p>Still panting and vaguely confused Sookie made some unintelligible sounds, then lifted up Aengus’ head and whispered, “Fuck you, asshole.” She took his hard shaft and led it to her core. He entered with a slow motion and continued with deep and thorough thrusts until their low moans filled the room.</p>
<p>Sookie gave in to pleasure till dawn, when sleep muted any incoherent thought trying to assault her shaky peace of mind.</p>
<p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Chapter 10</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western">Keep reminding yourself of the way things are connected, of their relatedness. All things are implicated in one another and in sympathy with each other. This event is the consequence of some other one. Things push and pull on each other, and breathe together, and are one.</p>
<p class="western">(<em>Excerpt from The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, </em><em>book 6, chapter 38</em>)</p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western">The Pythia was a noble of aristocratic family or a peasant, rich or poor, very lettered and educated or illiterate, in any case a woman of Delphi, Greece. A priestess revered and, in the golden age of the oracle of Apollo, no political decisions, military campaign or important commitment in any field was taken or started without considering her advice.</p>
<p class="western">The vampiress who sat on the fashionable armchair overlooking the Lake Erie, in Pennsylvania, once was a Pythia. She was over two thousand and five hundred years old, and did not care to remember all of them.</p>
<p class="western">She had been turned at the end of a very long life as a powerful sibyl, to continue her role as seer and adviser. She did not anticipated how hard a commitment that function would have entailed but her life was in her visions, she could not avoid her fate. As a vampire she was known as the Ancient Pythoness or the Ancient One. Vampires, fairies and daemons alike respected her and sought her counselling in the form of prophecies or visions.</p>
<p class="western">The half-daemon lawyer, Desmond Cataliades, basking in the cool breeze blowing from north, waited patiently that the vampiress addressed him.</p>
<p class="western">“Daemon,” the Ancient One’s throaty voice pierced the air, “it is some time since our last encounter.”</p>
<p class="western">“Pythia.” Cataliades bowed even if the old vampiress’ eyes were veiled by an extended cataract. “You are well.”</p>
<p class="western">“Preserved, I’d say. You are… round.”</p>
<p class="western">Cataliades smiled. “Someone likes variety on the table.”</p>
<p class="western">“Age saves me from appetites. Most of them, anyway.” The Pythia stood and leant on the railing, watching the lake to the west.</p>
<p class="western">The Pythoness’ body looked all the age she had but her voice and her demeanour carried all the strength she had accrued in centuries.</p>
<p class="western">“These are interesting times, daemon,” the vampiress uttered the words slowly. “And I think more interesting times will follow.”</p>
<p class="western">Cataliades waited to see if the seer would continue, but the vampiress seemed to lose her gaze in the distant fog arising from the far shore.</p>
<p class="western">“Good or bad times?”</p>
<p class="western">“There’s no good, nor bad.” The Pythia’s crooked smile was not visible in the dim light of the night. “Those are human qualifications, and we are well beyond that.”</p>
<p class="western">“I don’t think much beyond, Pythoness.”</p>
<p class="western">“I forgot you daemons are… judges of the good and the evil. Especially the evil, mmm?”</p>
<p class="western">“That is a human belief.” Cataliades smiled in his turn. “But good and evil do exist: good is what benefits me, and evil is what harms me.”</p>
<p class="western">“These times are beyond benefits and harms. At least, from my perspective above races and single events. What might benefit me could harm you. So, is it good or bad?”</p>
<p class="western">“Maybe your perspective is too far away. Mine is still very close to where I eat.”</p>
<p class="western">“The only valuable perspective is the one that allows you to see the most of what happens, possibly all.” The vampiress came back to the armchair and sat.</p>
<p class="western">“Is that the way your visions see the future?”</p>
<p class="western">The Pythia shook her head and was silent for a while.</p>
<p class="western">“My visions change all the time. Blurred or clear, long, just a shot, near… far. It depends on ripples.” She clenched and unclenched her hands a few times, distant and pensive. “Time is not a neat dimension with a beginning and a line to follow. Nor is it a circle. Think of it as a medium we are immersed in… I like to think of it as water.”</p>
<p class="western">“… with currents and whirls?”</p>
<p class="western">“Seas within oceans, currents and waterfalls, bubbles, driftwoods, and more.” Another long pause.</p>
<p class="western">“What worries you, Ancient One?” Cataliades asked, then added: “And what can I do for you?”</p>
<p class="western">“Something happened… something that may have changed our path, or our choices in it.”</p>
<p class="western">“And this something is good and bad at the same time? For me, for you, for others…?”</p>
<p class="western">“Daemon, you cannot avoid to think as a judge. But there are no judges here, nor crimes or rights…”</p>
<p class="western">“It’s a kind of occupational disease, I’m afraid.”</p>
<p class="western">“Visions are not clear now, but they are very, very strong. Something stirred time from far away, but I saw it… therefore it will cross our path, sooner or later.”</p>
<p class="western">“Something…” Cataliades did not like her speaking with vague words.</p>
<p class="western">“Something very strong, Desmond. Something that can be our end or another beginning… I don’t know, yet.”</p>
<p class="western">The daemon stilled. The Ancient One had never addressed him with his first name. “You are very worried, though.”</p>
<p class="western">“I fear. I fear. And I don’t like it,” the vampiress was quiet for a long, long time, and Cataliades did not dare to awake her.</p>
<p class="western">“I’m not sleeping, daemon.” The Pythia came back from where her mind had taken her, and continued: “Something as strong as to plague my visions for months is something I respect and… fear. I did make mistakes in the past, and I don’t want to make other… miscalculations.”</p>
<p class="western">“Mistakes give us a chance to learn, too.”</p>
<p class="western">“And I learned, daemon, I learned. I learned that I don’t want to make other mistakes.”</p>
<p class="western">“Pythia, that’s arrogant even for you.”</p>
<p class="western">“Gods, but I’m arrogant, presumptuous, bold. I have to be if I want to survive my visions.” A chuckle came from the old vampiress, but Cataliades was not so sure it was a laugh. Maybe a snigger. “For instance… that tall, blond vampire from the place you live, mmm, New Orleans?”</p>
<p class="western">“Eric Northman, but he’s not in Louisiana since—”</p>
<p class="western">“That’s not the point,” the Pythia snapped. “I saw him in my visions, some years ago, with that other blond… your godchild, right?” She did not wait for an answer and continued: “It seemed good, the path where they were was good… my visions had plenty of good omens. Then, something happened and they parted, and visions became muddy and less benevolent.”</p>
<p class="western">“Were they a piece of a larger design…?”</p>
<p class="western">“Daemon, everyone of us is a piece of a larger design.” The vampiress did not hide her frustration at the lawyer’s question. “What I meant is that I took for… granted their path, together. And I focused elsewhere. I thought they would have followed that path. They appeared so strong and determined in my visions, not in the reality in front of me, but ahead. Though that path vanished…”</p>
<p class="western">“A lot of things happened—”</p>
<p class="western">“Desmond, be quiet,” the vampiress’ tone sounded somehow urgent, maybe only agitated. “My mistake was to take it for granted and do not follow the development. But now that path is lost.”</p>
<p class="western">The light wind from the north became colder, and the nocturnal animals’ noises louder. Especially some wolves’ howls.</p>
<p class="western">“Or Rhodes. I knew of the Fellowship of the Sun longer before they became news on tv, but I thought that humans and vampires would have swept them away…”</p>
<p class="western">“Are you implying that, in the future, you might intervene somehow?”</p>
<p class="western">“No. Yes.” She shook her head lightly. “I think I will follow the evolution of some events more closely. Maybe I will nudge someone, or let drop an information at the right time, or other things… it depends on what I see…”</p>
<p class="western">“Isn’t it dangerous to meddle this way in time’s… business?”</p>
<p class="western">“We are always interfering with each other, willing or not. I called you, you came, but you could have gone somewhere else to do a different thing with other individuals. I could have called someone else or nobody. Every action or inaction is an interference that meets other interventions. We are all connected.”</p>
<p class="western">“The butterfly effect?”</p>
<p class="western">“This is not a weather model, Desmond.”</p>
<p class="western">“Ah, yes. Just to have the idea,” the daemon did not like the way the conversation was turning out. “Am I to play the butterfly?”</p>
<p class="western">This time it was definitely a laugh, even if hoarse and mocking, coming from the ancient vampiress. “Your sense of humour is worse than mine. But… yes, that’s what I’m asking you. To be that light nudge or whatever required by circumstances.”</p>
<p class="western">Cataliades hesitated. “I will think about it, Ancient One.”</p>
<p class="western">The vampiress smoothed a fold on her pleated dress with a very feminine, incongruous gesture on her part, and smiled. “Think, daemon. Think.”</p>
<p class="western"> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Chapter 11</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western">
  <span class="u">10. Miscellaneous</span>
</p>
<p class="western">(f) The Consort acknowledges and agrees not to contact in any way his children, his former wife and any former subject or underling. He further agrees not to set foot in Louisiana without the queen’s authorisation. (…)</p>
<p class="western">(h) The Consort states as an absolute condition of marriage that the Queen would never harm, directly or indirectly, his former wife, Sookie Stackhouse, included -but not limited to- harassing, tasting, turning, killing or making her a servant of any kind. (…)</p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western">
  <span class="u">12. Protective clause</span>
</p>
<p class="western">The Queen acknowledges and agrees that, in case of breach of the provisions of the Section 10, article (h) on her part, the entire Marriage Agreement would be declared null and void and the Consort would be free of any further obligation inherent the said contract. The Consort would also be granted the right to claim damages up to three billion dollars, amount to be revalued at the date of the claiming. (…)</p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western">(<em>Excerpts from the Marriage Agreement between the Queen Freyda of Oklahoma and her Consort, Eric Northman</em>)</p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western">Another year had elapsed and no news from his <em>friends</em> had reached him.</p>
<p class="western">Eric knew that, whatever was being done, time was a variable not taken into consideration. At least, not in the way he now considered it. Vampires were a long-lived race and time was of lesser concern to them than to short-lived races, like humans or weres.</p>
<p class="western">Indeed, as he began to mull over the various possibilities of his predicament and to consider his attitude in that scenario, he realised his actual feelings were more close to those of a human than to those of a smart and ruthless vampire in a grim situation, as he really was.</p>
<p class="western">Was he losing his edge?, he wondered not for the first time. The hole left by the forced excision of his lover was deeper than he had thought. And more painful to endure than anything else.</p>
<p class="western">As he landed on the clearing in front of the warehouse used as training ground, Eric closed briefly his eyes and cleared his features and mind of any residual turmoil.</p>
<p class="western">He was there for the monthly review of troops, as during the last years many peripheral upheavals, street fights and minor disturbances had erupted in several counties, mostly on the northern border with Kansas and in major conurbations, like Tulsa-Broken Arrow, Norman, Lawton. Also the capital had been touched by this rioting mood, and Eric was strictly monitoring the territory to evaluate the real source and extension of the unrest.</p>
<p class="western">He obviously considered also the case of his <em>friends </em>weakening the queendom and, nonetheless, advised the queen to appease the vampire community lowering tithes (too high since the takeover) and showing more tolerance in business related competition against her own enterprises. In fact, deep dissatisfaction had been expressed by many minor businessvamps, during quarterly random checks on their accounting, about the fairness in Assizes’ proceedings held by the queen.</p>
<p class="western">Freyda, though, had shrugged away those suggestions saying that that unrest was simply a minor aftermath of the takeover, which would fade away as her power solidified, and no real threat was to be read in it. However, she noted that his presence as enforcer and security advisor was exactly what she had looked for to settle those minor problems. Eric had remarked that ruling a country was a very different matter than conquering it, to be done with a distinct set of tools and not relying on mere strength.</p>
<p class="western">The queen did not listen and Eric managed to contain the waves of turbulence with the means he was handed. Freyda, in fact, did not consider to allocate more resources to reinforce the security of her country.</p>
<p class="western">“Ford,” Eric started, looking at the recruits in the warehouse, “I asked to inspect all day-guards off duty each day for this week. Why are there only three of them?”</p>
<p class="western">“The queen required half of the day-guards stationed in town to be assigned to the Cimarron County for the three-days meeting she—”</p>
<p class="western">“Half of the entire garrison of weres?” Eric barely contained his fury.</p>
<p class="western">“Yes, sir,” Ford was uneasy. “Direct order.”</p>
<p class="western">“When did you dispatch them?”</p>
<p class="western">“Two days before her departure, sir. The queen wanted a reconnaissance and—”</p>
<p class="western">“Do Barnes know this?”</p>
<p class="western">Ford nodded. Eric took his mobile phone and waited for the lieutenant to answer. “Barnes,” Eric said as the other vampire opened the communication, “what is she up to?”</p>
<p class="western">“I don’t know, but something is… I don’t know, wrong.” Barnes seemed resigned.</p>
<p class="western">“I’d say something stupid and potentially catastrophic,” Eric replied flatly. “Meet me in thirty minutes at the residence.”</p>
<p class="western">Barnes waited for the consort at his office’s door, anxious and unsettled.</p>
<p class="western">“Eric,” Barnes said as they were alone inside the office, “the queen cut me out. What happened?”</p>
<p class="western">“Nothing, yet. I hope.” Eric sat on his chair and steepled his hands in front of his face, elbows on the desk. “But she moved some troops to the county where she’s meeting with Wyoming’s emissaries.”</p>
<p class="western">“How many vampires?”</p>
<p class="western">“I only know of weres. Half garrison from Oklahoma City and some more from Grant County.” The consort opened his laptop and typed quickly. He sent his reports on the security state of the capital city and the unwise choice to move large numbers of day-guards to the border county in which the meeting would be held. Measures of personal safeguard on his part: Eric did not want anyone to even suspect his complicity in setting up a trap for Wyoming’s vampires nor, in case of Freyda’s death, for his royal wife. His position would be awkward and unpleasant in both eventualities.</p>
<p class="western">“I can understand she does not fully trust me, but you?” Eric was not sure Barnes was completely ignorant of the queen’s moves.</p>
<p class="western">“What do you suspect?” the lieutenant did nothing to hide his tension.</p>
<p class="western">“Who did choose the location for the meeting? A county bordering three countries is not a safe option.” Cimarron County neighbours were Texas, New Mexico and Colorado. On paper those kingdoms were business associates and friendly, but Eric knew of simmering tensions waiting an excuse to surface, and Freyda could not ignore those either.</p>
<p class="western">“The queen proposed it, to be closer for her guests. A form of respect, she said.”</p>
<p class="western">Eric watched Barnes and really could not decide if the vampire was naive or complicit in the attempted ploy against Wyoming. Because that was exactly as he was beginning to see the move. “Wyoming did not objected?” Eric asked instead.</p>
<p class="western">“When I sent the invitation the queen’s aide did not—”</p>
<p class="western">“Did you correspond directly with him?” Eric narrowed his eyes on the screen and continued to type.</p>
<p class="western">“Yes. Freyda charged me to propose the location and, afterwards, to send there some security. Borders are always problematic.” Barnes referred to some recent incidents along with New Mexico’s border, though nothing relevant.</p>
<p class="western">“So, you knew about the deployment of weres.”</p>
<p class="western">“I suggested them…” Barnes paused some seconds, then continued: “I did not like the location, either. That’s why I suggested some more security for the queen.”</p>
<p class="western">Eric nodded and sent all the notes he had just written. In case of failure, Freyda had set up her second as scapegoat, and let the consort completely out of the picture. Eric smiled to Barnes. “Fine.”</p>
<p class="western">“What did you mean when you said that she could have been up to something potentially catastrophic?” Barnes was still alarmed.</p>
<p class="western">“I was wrong. I thought you were not privy to her moves. But now you’ve just confirmed that you overviewed the issues involved in this trip to Boise City and all is good.” Eric was strangely sad for the queen’s second, but he was already thinking how to build on the trust Freyda had just showed him. If anything remained after whatever was undergoing up there.</p>
<p class="western">During the last year, after the night with the queen of Wyoming, Eric had to bed his wife once or twice per month to keep her reasonably amenable. It was a burden and an unpleasant task performed with mechanical determination, like the medical treatment carried out by a disaffected doctor. Yet, it had produced its fruits.</p>
<p class="western">Two nights earlier, Freyda had sent a luscious blond, blue eyed girl to his office offering to feed him and satisfy any other need he might have. Eric had mentally checked when it had been the last night he had sex with his wife and found that more than fifteen days had gone by. Therefore, this offering was a reminder to provide her medication. He called the queen and set an appointment in twenty minutes. He always preferred to tackle unpleasant task sooner than later.</p>
<p class="western">The accommodating girl followed him eager to discover the royal apartments and complied enthusiastically to any request. She performed a commendable fellatio while the queen undressed, then touched herself with a passionate attitude that garnered the unfaltering attention of the consort and, finally, after he banged the vampiress, hastily and roughly, against the bed’s headboard, Eric kissed the woman intensely and made her come with his hands, leaving her completely undone as to not remember him feeding from her thigh.</p>
<p class="western">It was the first kiss he had given in more than three years and it had been triggered by the blond, blue eyed girl’s broad smile. The queen wanted some more attention and he had still another smile in his mind when turned the vampiress and, biting her nape, entered her and tried to forget where he was and what he was doing.</p>
<p class="western">Weird. For centuries he had fucked and fed eagerly but without intensity, then a young woman from a one light village in northern Louisiana had changed his world. For good, it seemed.</p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western">***</p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western">The second evening after Freyda left for the meeting with Wyoming’s emissaries, Eric woke up two hours before sunset. He did not need to sleep more than six or seven hours per day, and he used those hours till dusk to practice with Minuette, the werecougar who had proved to be a good sparring partner. Or to work, read, watch tv. Anything to keep his brain focused in trivial tasks.</p>
<p class="western">The night before the queen left, Eric had given Minuette an urgent message for his child or whoever took the communication. <em>Queen set trap for Wyoming: possible danger in daytime</em>. As usual, no answer came back.</p>
<p class="western">Eric had searched for the recording device his <em>friends</em> had asked for. He found none, but the research was fruitful as well. He had found the location of a very important vault in one of the residence of the queen outside Oklahoma City, then he had mapped up to six houses with heavy weaponry and equipments in several counties north and west of the country, and two sites that hosted security equipment (main servers included). He had sent all the information through the usual means, with coordinates and security measures in place. No answer. Eric was not surprised, but his anxiety did not find any suitable outlet.</p>
<p class="western">Minuette descended to the swimming pool basement, where he had just finished his exercises. “Someone at the door for you, sir.”</p>
<p class="western">Eric had no friends in Oklahoma, nor business associates, who could drop by his place to wish him good night. “A girl, her name’s Cataliades.”</p>
<p class="western">The vampire turned and wore a bathrobe. “How many guards outside?”</p>
<p class="western">“Two.”</p>
<p class="western">He went upstairs, took his blade from the cabinet and headed to the entrance door. “Stay behind.” The surveillance camera screen framed a young woman’s face, blue hair and pointed teeth. Eric opened the door smiling and watched the diminutive woman in a weird lime green jacket, violet shorts and mismatched striped stocks, flanked by two weres.</p>
<p class="western">“Diantha!”</p>
<p class="western">“HimrNorthmanhowreyou?” Cataliades’ niece worked for the late queen of Louisiana, Sophie-Anne Leclerc, but Eric did not know in which capacity she was now at his doorstep.</p>
<p class="western">“Come in. It’s still too bright to my taste.” He smiled again, as if seeing a known face from his past was tantamount to be still living those good days. “Is it your uncle who sent you?”</p>
<p class="western">“IamtheAncientOnesmessengernow.” Diantha did not seem to need breathing. “Ihaveamessageforyou.”</p>
<p class="western">“Ancient Pythoness?” Eric furrowed his brow and led the daemon to a sofa.</p>
<p class="western">The tiny girl stomped with her blue boots till the couch but did not sit. Eric sat down mainly to have his head at her level and waited.</p>
<p class="western">“ThemessageisforyoualonemrNorthman.”</p>
<p class="western">Eric nodded and signalled Minuette to leave the room. Diantha produced a parchment from a briefcase and offered it to the vampire. He took and read it. Three times. His heart skipped a bit, then he leant on the backrest and closed his eyes. “Anything else, Diantha?”</p>
<p class="western">“TheAncientOnewishesyouwellsodoIitsallIthink.” Her toothy smile was ominous but her tone was cheerful.</p>
<p class="western">In a swift move Eric embraced her, then threw her up in the air and took her in his arms again, laughing out loud. “Diantha, you’re the best thing that happened to me in years!” He kissed her forehead and whirled joyfully as a dervish dancer.</p>
<p class="western">“GladtohearthatmrNorthman.Wouldyouputmedownnow.”</p>
<p class="western">Eric stopped and let her down. “Can I do something for you?”</p>
<p class="western">“MyplaneiswaitingformebyemrNorthman.” Diantha swayed unstable to the door and grinned again. “Seeyou.”</p>
<p class="western">As the door closed, the burner phone Eric kept in his study rang. He flew through the staircase and entered his home office.</p>
<p class="western">“Northman,” he answered. And decided to savour at a later time what he could do for the rest of his life.</p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western">***</p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western">Barnes paced around Eric’s office, from the desk to the bookcase and the door, then back again.</p>
<p class="western">“Something happened. She’s not answering my calls.” Barnes’ voice was strained, his gait tired and uncomfortable.</p>
<p class="western">“Does she always reply right away?” Eric knew that that was a recurrent gripe the aide came out with, as if the queen did not pay him enough attention.</p>
<p class="western">“Not always. But she’s—”</p>
<p class="western">“She’s very busy with her guests, Alfred” Eric cut it short. “I think she does not want to be disturbed with what is <em>not </em>happening here, and she would call if she needed something.”</p>
<p class="western">“Yes, probably.” Barnes was not convinced but conceded. “Eric, wouldn’t you fly there to see that everything is fine?”</p>
<p class="western">Eric looked at the lieutenant with incredulity on his face, realising the other vampire was really concerned for his queen. Why had not he ever noticed before his personal involvement?, Eric tried to recall Barnes’ interactions with the queen, from that first night on.</p>
<p class="western">“Alfred, it’s almost dawn. But, mostly, she did not ask me or you to be with her. Why, in your opinion?”</p>
<p class="western">“She didn’t want us in her way because… she doesn’t trust us…” Barnes sounded defeated.</p>
<p class="western">“That would apply for me, but for you?” Eric said almost sweetly. “Maybe she wants you here to watch her back when she’s solving a minor issue.”</p>
<p class="western">Eric’s phone rang with the ringtone assigned to Hayes, the head of security. “Speak.”</p>
<p class="western">“Suspect movements outside the residence, sir. I’m coming back from Pennsylvania Avenue—” Roxanne was calm as usual when the communication was cut off.</p>
<p class="western">Eric, on the contrary, was feeling excitement and a longing for blood. After, all electric power got interrupted and no alternative system kicked in.</p>
<p class="western">The black out lasted more than two hours, but the attack had started fifteen minutes before dawn, after the changing of the guards, and was over in an hour or so. Almost blood-free as most vampires were already retired for the day and the few weres on duty did not have the chance, nor the numbers, to respond properly to the massive wave of mercenaries, mostly humans, armed with powerful tasers and toxic ammunition in their guns.</p>
<p class="western">Eric retired to his apartment in the royal residence, where he rarely slept, and followed the occupation of the targets he had selected and pointed out through Minuette. The vault in one of the secondary residences of the queen, in Canadian County, proved to be interesting but mainly for economical and intelligence reasons, while the armouries scattered around the country were richer than forecasted. The real trove, however, was the two sites where the main servers were stashed away. They had been the first targets to be taken and the security equipment in there allowed an easy occupation of the others.</p>
<p class="western">Eric did not want to let people know that he could stay awake more hours than most (younger) vampires and observed all the action from his rooms, without intervening in any way. His computer was connected to the main security servers since eight o’clock in the morning and, half an hour later, to the cameras the mercenaries were wearing on their helmets.</p>
<p class="western">At eleven thirty in the morning Eric was about to switch off all his electronic devices when a pop-up advised there was a mail from Wyoming. The subject field read <em>For your eyes only</em>.</p>
<p class="western">Eric opened the attachment, a video, and played it.</p>
<p class="western">The queen of Oklahoma had been attacked and imprisoned within the first fifteen minutes of her arrival at the airport of Boise City, more a village than a town. Her coffin had been sent to Lander, Wyoming, and she had woken up a few hours later in a non disclosed location in the Shoshone National Forest. The video recorded her torture and death in a ten hours footage bookmarked in several points.</p>
<p class="western">Eric skipped most of it and went directly to the end, to be sure she was no more among the living. He paused to taste what flavour that death had for him. It was satisfying and it changed his life for the better, but it was almost tasteless. What he had really lost was not back with him. His joy, therefore, was curtailed and bland.</p>
<p class="western">He browsed through the highlighted bookmarks till he found something. It had been Felipe de Castro to send Ocella to Freyda, the vampiress confessed during the torture. “And who told Felipe?”, someone out of the picture asked. “One… of his… new… underling,” Freyda whispered in painful bursts.</p>
<p class="western"><em>One of his underling</em>.</p>
<p class="western">How stupid of him not to have guessed before.</p>
<p class="western">Eric’s fury fired abruptly from his depths, and he already savoured how to placate it. In a long, bloody way, he promised himself.</p>
<p class="western">Before laying on the bed for a few hours of disturbed sleep, Eric retrieved the parchment Diantha had presented him with and read again its last paragraph.</p>
<p class="western">
  <em>The Pythia, presiding at the Zeus and Amun Clans’ Council, declared the Queen of Oklahoma guilty of infringement of the Marriage Agreement between herself and Eric Northman [Section 10, Article (h)]. According to said contract, therefore, Eric Northman is freed of any obligation pertaining the marriage [Section 12] as of now and is granted damages as stipulated in said agreement.</em>
</p>
<p class="western">
  <em>Lander (WY), September 18, 2017</em>
</p>
<p class="western">Today was the nineteenth of September.</p>
<p class="western">Of all the ways he had imagined the end of his slavery, it had not figured the infringement of their marriage contract. Eric felt somehow deprived of a righteous last word. He would have uttered a few choice word with his sword, he thought vaguely. He knew it would have been a useless consolation, but his mind went there nonetheless.</p>
<p class="western">After a while he took his burner phone and called his child. He wanted to hear how Pamela had staged an attempt on Sookie’s life and brushed it under Freyda’s rug.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Chapter 12</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western">If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.</p>
<p class="western">(<em>Excerpt from The Art of War, Su Tzu</em>)</p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western">Eric Northman arrived to Indianola, Mississippi, some ten days after the takeover of Freyda’s queendom. Minuette followed him.</p>
<p class="western">Russell Edgington, the king of Mississippi, was a short, red-haired vampire who resided in the southern state since long time, given his badly masked thick accent and his gentleman’s manners like those of a nineteenth century’s landowner. And he liked to dress in refined garments. It was with a dark green velvet suit over a white lacy shirt that he welcomed Eric in his country, more specifically in a modern farmhouse north of Indianola, not far from its airport.</p>
<p class="western">“Adrianne told me you’ve been very helpful,” Russell said slowly, trying to keep each vowel in its place, “and determinant for the success of the operation.”</p>
<p class="western">“Freyda helped, too,” Eric smiled.</p>
<p class="western">“Yes, I heard she was quite frantic the last period…”</p>
<p class="western">“Suspicious and paranoid. I think she doubted her lieutenant was a spy.” Eric remembered how Barnes could not believe his queen had set him up, and the aide had used the term <em>his</em> with a different nuance.</p>
<p class="western">“Hazardous on her part. Do you know of any ally she could count on?”</p>
<p class="western">“She was just beginning to trust me, and not much. She did not discuss with me this plan and did not disclose any trump card… She was over confident on her personal capabilities, and maybe she would have succeeded.”</p>
<p class="western">“Which personal capabilities are you talking about?” Bartlett Crowe asked as he entered into the private sitting room where Eric, Russell and a silent Joseph Velasquez were going through the last days of Oklahoma.</p>
<p class="western">“Glamour, very strong glamour. Surely with weres, but I suspect she could use it even with vampires.” Eric said with an evident distaste. Vampires used their strong minds to control humans to a certain extent: it was usually easy for a vampire to bent to his will an individual without him remembering to have been manipulated. It was not a trick to use often with the same person as it caused permanent damages in the abused brain. Freyda, Eric had noticed after being introduced to her lawyers, bankers and human advisors in financial matters, used this kind of manipulation heavily, without caring for the mental safety of her underlings or partners. And, observing her attentively during her exchanges with subordinates, weres and vampires alike, Eric noticed the same intense concentration she had when glamouring humans. “Not everyone was vulnerable. For instance, Ford, her day-guards head, was not affected by her control and, consequently, she did not like him. The same went for her second head of security, Hayes. But her lieutenant, Barnes, I think he was glamoured.” Eric omitted the part where he had glamoured Ford the day he had arrived at his house in a less than efficient physical condition. It was never a good idea showing off his abilities.</p>
<p class="western">“A telepath could be useful here,” Texas’ king said carelessly, “but Horowitz proved also ambivalent toward Stan, I don’t trust him.” Then, after a pause, Joseph added: “Not that I’m sure he could detect glamouring. But your telepath could, right?” he turned to Eric with a questioning look.</p>
<p class="western">Eric stilled and his relaxed posture lost all ease. When he spoke his voice was a razor propelled through the air. “She is not mine any more.”</p>
<p class="western">The silence that followed was interrupted by Bartlett, the bulky husband of the king of Mississippi. “In any case, given that Freyda is definitely gone, it’s not very relevant.”</p>
<p class="western">“Not exactly. I think Wyoming, or the ruler who will be given the country, could be interested in knowing whom, among the former queen’s retinue, to trust or not,” said Joseph.</p>
<p class="western">“Not our first priority at the moment.” Bartlett countered.</p>
<p class="western">“No, you’re right. At any rate, the next monarch would better use her own vampires for any delicate position, and the absence of Freyda will make the glamouring useless.” Joseph was following his train of thoughts and, probably, thinking about the way he had had to reorganise his kingdom after the former king’s death.</p>
<p class="western">Russell smiled and spoke softly: “I think Adrianne knows what to do and, at the end, it’s her choice whom to appoint as next ruler.” At that point the king turned to Eric and said: “Whereas we are here to see for another ruler…”</p>
<p class="western">“Indeed,” Bartlett turned to face Eric, who still had a cloudy look in his eyes, “we’re all worried about the presence of Nevada among us.”</p>
<p class="western">Eric let his eyes wander among the monarchs in the room: Texas, Mississippi and Indiana. The first two had a very annoying neighbour between them, and the third was husband and ally to the second, therefore shared his worries.</p>
<p class="western">Admittedly, since the takeover of Louisiana, which at that time included Arkansas, all southern states from Zeus to Amun Clans were fidgety and this had a detrimental effect on business and politics. During the last three years, moreover, the political instability had moved slightly north, to Tennessee and Missouri, stirring things up where they were mostly quiet (but for Oklahoma, already in turmoil after its takeover a few years before that of Louisiana and Arkansas).</p>
<p class="western">“From what my child says, though,” Eric said levelly, “things are becoming intensely problematic in Arkansas, and also Louisiana is not very solid in Felipe’s hands.”</p>
<p class="western">“De Castro’s forces are stretched,” confirmed Joseph, “and he concentrates them in Nevada, leaving his Regent very autonomous.”</p>
<p class="western">“Autonomous in defensive matters, but very sharing in financial affairs,” Russell added smiling. “Not a very successful recipe.”</p>
<p class="western">“I— We think it’s a very favourable moment this one…” said Bartlett and watched again the tall blond vampire who made every piece of furniture in the room appear little and fragile.</p>
<p class="western">Eric sat on a loveseat, long legs stretched in front of him, arms crossed and face blank. “Why me?”</p>
<p class="western">“You’re the natural candidate for that throne,” Bartlett said simply, “or for a throne, in general. How long have you been sheriff in Louisiana? Twenty years? Thirty? More?”. Without waiting for an answer Indiana continued: “You know the place and its subjects. Most of them still remember you with loyalty and will gladly welcome you… help you restoring the good times they had under Sophie-Anne.”</p>
<p class="western">“It seems you have spoken a lot with my child: I hear Pam’s exact words here.” Eric smiled, without mirth, remembering the welcome Pamela and Karin had given him the night before, at his arrival to Indianola. Both his children had urged him to take action and Pamela, before leaving for New Orleans, had told him to think carefully about his next moves as many people were looking at him expectantly.</p>
<p class="western">“We worked with Pam for a couple of years, Eric,” Joseph interjected, “and we learned a lot of things about Nevada. It’s time to stop him, his delusions of grandeur have created many problems to all of us. Instability and blood is not something we can tolerate now that humans know about us. Even if they know only what we allow them to know.”</p>
<p class="western">“Let’s say that Nevada overstepped many boundaries,” Bartlett concluded.</p>
<p class="western">“Even physical ones!” Russell said shaking his head. “I don’t understand how he thought to jump from Narayana to Amun and hold two kingdoms so far away from his stronghold. It was just a matter of time for us to respond to his moves.”</p>
<p class="western">“Old beliefs, stale strategies, outdated ideas,” Bartlett watched his husband and shook his head in turn.</p>
<p class="western">“Or no strategy at all. He just saw an opportunity, Sophie-Anne weakened and her second dead,” added Eric, “without thinking how to hold her queendom afterwards.” He watched the vampires around him and asked again: “Why me?”</p>
<p class="western">It was Russell who spoke, holding the other vampire’s gaze. “We know you since long time, Eric, well before you came to Louisiana. We know people who met you in other places, in other circumstances. We know what you’ve done, and we like the way you think and act. Mostly, at least.”</p>
<p class="western">“It’s much more that can be said of many other possible candidates,” finished Bartlett.</p>
<p class="western">“And you, Joseph?,” asked Eric to Texas, “any praise from you?”</p>
<p class="western">“I told you already, Eric, I appreciated your past behaviour and have nothing against you as a neighbour. I know we can face shit and work out of it decently.”</p>
<p class="western">“Let me recap the situation, then,” Eric stood up and went beyond the sofa. “You two,” he nodded toward the royal couple, “think I am the vampire who has most chances given my ties with the territory and its subjects, my children and other advantages.” Then he turned to Texas. “Whereas you prefer me as neighbour because you think I’ll give you no problems, or less problems than others.”</p>
<p class="western">“Eric,” said Bartlett, “it’s not only that. It’s time for you. At your age, without maker, you cannot go again serving another ruler. Think of it.”</p>
<p class="western">“I never wanted to be one myself.”</p>
<p class="western">“Probably that’s exactly what can make a good leader of you,” Russell stated matter-of-factly. “Think about it. Seriously.”</p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western">***</p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western">That day Eric could not sleep very well.</p>
<p class="western">Humans thought that vampires sort of died in the daytime, but that was another legend vampires had spread to give their true existence an unlike quality. Indeed, all their existence was a riddle to themselves. Since the very moment of their turning, vampires and other supernatural creatures called magic what happened to them. Maybe someday human technology would dispel the veil of magic and discover what really happened to those humans who turned out vampires.</p>
<p class="western">However, Eric’s sleep was not deep and comatose as that of young vampires. He could spend the day awake, if needed, and he would have had problems only after a couple of days of wakefulness.</p>
<p class="western">At the moment, he rolled on the bed in a restless sleep and had dreams he was not aware of. Being king had never been something he had desired, not even in his human time. He felt the responsibility of people under his command very deeply, and could not imagine to rule carelessly over a multitude. On the other hand, he had promised himself not to fall again powerless in wrong hands: it was something he was fed up with and did not need to experience again.</p>
<p class="western">Therefore, what were his options? To be true, his thoughts were not exactly coherent and did not follow a logical path all the time. In waking moments he knew he did not want to find himself in another Freyda-like scenario. In fact, the death of his maker was not a sure guarantee not to found himself in unpleasant situations given to his pledge to a little monarch or in the event of a takeover. True, the last time was a combination of all of those circumstances very unlikely to happen again at the same time, at least as far as a sadistic maker was involved.</p>
<p class="western">Yet, the recent experience had taught everybody how unwise it could be to corner an old vampire like him. It had also taught him how it was preferable to manipulate people from a different standpoint that the one he had been in Oklahoma. Consequently, if he had to fight it would have been better to do it at his own conditions. And he knew that fighting was always on the table.</p>
<p class="western">He woke up a couple of hours before sunset and studied the papers Pamela had left for him before leaving. His child had offered an up to date view of the defence force Louisiana and Arkansas could count on at a twelve-hours notice and less, of the security measures the major outposts and strongholds could muster in case of suspected attack and of the critical flaws in the chain of command.</p>
<p class="western">When the sun was only a red refraction in the sky Eric called his child, knowing to be waking her up too early for her taste.</p>
<p class="western">“Eric!” In fact, Pamela was not very pleased. “Some vampires still sleep at this time.”</p>
<p class="western">“Not those who have to get ready for war.”</p>
<p class="western">Eric could swear to have heard a smile in her silence.</p>
<p class="western">“I take it I can send you the rest: maps, layouts, coordinates, timetables, channels, codes…”</p>
<p class="western">“I see you’ve talked a lot with our friends here.”</p>
<p class="western">“They support you and—”</p>
<p class="western">“They have their own rationales which are not necessary mine, Pam” argued Eric. “And I don’t want to embark on a mission that is not of my choice.”</p>
<p class="western">“You don’t have many choices, now” stated Pamela flatly, “you’re in a corner.”</p>
<p class="western">Eric nodded even if she could not see him. “The time window is limited, no more than two months at best, and I don’t like to rush things.”</p>
<p class="western">“The preferable time frame is now, yes, and you are the master of opportunism, so…”</p>
<p class="western">“Pam, should I expect specific requests from you?”</p>
<p class="western">“My reward is to be at your side, maker. Always.” The thin voice at the other end of the receiver was unwavering but begging nonetheless.</p>
<p class="western">“I know. It’s one of the many pleasure you give me,” Eric closed his eyes. “Send everything. Also a detailed list of who we can count on, and who we could count at a lesser extent…”</p>
<p class="western">“All is ready. I’ll send an sms with username and password for a cloud archive I’ve just created.”</p>
<p class="western">“Good.” Eric could not help smiling at his child’s alacrity. “And, Pam, I’ve got another job for you.”</p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western">***</p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western">When Rehema Donnelly, the queen of Alabama, entered the study, Bartlett stood and met her at the door. “Queen,” Indiana’s king bowed theatrically, “if my husband were broadminded I would court you madly.”</p>
<p class="western">“Bart,” the queen replied with matching dramatic inspiration, “if your husband were enough openminded I would steal him under your very nose.”</p>
<p class="western">Rehema’s statuesque figure matched the bull-like frame of Bartlett in height, but the animal she reminded was a gazelle. Slender and elegant in a powder blue business suit that fitted her body loosely, she was a rare black beauty of Maasai origin.</p>
<p class="western">“Eric, this is Rehema Donnelly, queen of Alabama,” Russell stood and kissed her hand in a gentlemanlike gesture that Bartlett did not appreciate. “Rehema meet Eric Northman.”</p>
<p class="western">Eric stood in his turn and bowed graciously to the black vampiress whose deep brown eyes did not leave his. “I heard a lot of you, queen. The late Sophie-Anne greatly esteemed you.”</p>
<p class="western">“Sophie-Anne was a friend and a good vampire,” the queen said with a somber smile, “and I won’t rest in peace till <em>that</em> worm lives.”</p>
<p class="western">Eric acknowledged sighing and thought that that room was beginning to be too small for all the <em>sympathisers</em> the neighbouring king was drawing together.</p>
<p class="western">“Rehema came especially to meet you,” added Bartlett casually.</p>
<p class="western">Eric nodded and came back to sit at Karin’s side, on a little couch. “I see Felipe has not a lot of friends this side of the States.”</p>
<p class="western">“De Castro has not many friends in general, right now,” said Joseph bitterly, “and within reason.”</p>
<p class="western">Eric watched the vampires in the room silently, and thought about the connections among them and the other monarchs who had helped with the Oklahoma takeover: Wyoming, Colorado and (as stated in Pamela’s report) even Tennessee (who had offered some interesting intelligence). He saw two different coalitions that momentarily had found a point of convergence in Oklahoma’s dismissal. That had been the first move on the chessboard. Now, it was time for the second move before anyone began to see a plan behind it, but obviously it was there. And it was the first time he experienced such a level of cooperation among vampires.</p>
<p class="western">“I guess my friends here have already outlined our approach to the matter at hand.” Rehema’s voice was firm and delicate at once, a light melody that lulled into a relaxed state of attention. “All of you remember the discussions and different opinions that preceded the Great Reveal. Unfortunately, not all the ideas that bounced among us found good implementation. The point in coming out was not to become another oddity of this world, nor to alert humans to the danger that our existence poses to them.”</p>
<p class="western">“It’s a relative danger, indeed. We are less dangerous than all the ways humans themselves invent to endanger their existence,” said Joseph. “We need them, it’s not our interest to annihilate humans.”</p>
<p class="western">“Not all of us share this lowest common denominator,” Russell squeezed his husband’s hand. “Regrettably.”</p>
<p class="western">“Felipe, definitely, does not,” said Rehema bitterly. “He endangers us all with his disregard for human lives. Especially as he doesn’t hide very well his stupid misdeeds.”</p>
<p class="western">“During the last years, further, his disrespect has extended to vampires alike. But his greediness is not matched by his wisdom… and by the objective realisation that his forces are not up to the task.” The red-haired vampire continued to hold Bartlett’s hand, his face a grimace of contempt. “It’s time to stop him and to begin realising a few of those ideas we had…”</p>
<p class="western">“In this humans showed us the path long ago,” the black vampiress continued. “The economy is the way to war nowadays and the more under the radar the better. We have to extend our interests, our economical interests, far deeper than what makes us rich. We have to practice some more of politically correctness in a new… fashion.”</p>
<p class="western">Eric watched more closely the queen, her composure was imposing and authoritative without becoming showy, her body impressive but delicate despite her height.</p>
<p class="western">“Are you proposing to start businesses to rival state investments?” Eric said reckoning that the queen’s height was around ten centimetres less than his. He surprised himself thinking of how effective and dangerous she could be fighting.</p>
<p class="western">“Let’s say that we monarchs should consider more than our personal wealth, and build something tangible, extended, to sustain our goals as a species.” The queen’s gaze slid softly and unyielding on Eric’s face, then she smiled showing white regular teeth.</p>
<p class="western">Eric cracked a smile and said: “Maybe I have to procure myself a kingdom before carrying on this conversation.”</p>
<p class="western">“You’re already a king, Eric,” Rehema’s smile widened and showed a tinge of sweetness that left the other vampire wondering what he had missed. “It’s the way you think and act. And, yes, it’s time to find yourself a country to rule.”</p>
<p class="western">“Then, let’s discuss what this would-be king is expected to do for you, helpful allies,” said Eric letting his gaze wander among the vampires in the room. “And, before that, what you can really do for him.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Chapter 13</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western">Rhiannon’s twins were lovely as much as two toddlers who roamed everywhere yelling and throwing objects and tearing clothes could be. Sookie loved them for a few hours every week, then she happily went away and her life became peaceful once again.</p>
<p class="western">“What do you mean?” Sookie looked at her tutor and friend with wide eyes.</p>
<p class="western">“Sookie, I don’t have anything more to teach you. It’s more than four years now and I showed you all I knew. You are stronger than me and can do things I cannot do.” The fairy’s long brown-greenish hair waved around her head as she moved it to follow her sons’ moves.</p>
<p class="western">“But I need to practice, and you either. We can still have a lot to share.” Sookie felt a knot in her chest and took her friend’s hand. “Is it for those bad jokes about the children?”</p>
<p class="western">Rhiannon burst out laughing, making her watery appearance more confused in the ripples following her shaking head. “Impish imp you are for sure!” She squeezed Sookie’s hands and shook her head some more. “My dummy dumb blond!”</p>
<p class="western">“So, what? Why don’t you want to see me?”</p>
<p class="western">“Deaf dumb blond, then,” Rhiannon regained her composure. “I said we won’t meet any more for our lessons. You will always be welcomed at my house, we can meet everywhere for a chat and a stroll, and we still have some trips to do. Our lessons end here. Now, we’ll open another book, my friend.”</p>
<p class="western">Sookie wiped her tears from the cheeks and smiled. “<em>You played me. It’s not nice for older people to tease young innocent girls. What would you teach to your children</em>?”</p>
<p class="western">“<em>Weepy willow, I think you will have a very long life and it’s time you stop crying like my babies…</em>”</p>
<p class="western">“<em>I don’t cry all the time, only when needed.</em>”</p>
<p class="western">“<em>I know it’s your emotional reaction, but you scared the children. Look!</em>”</p>
<p class="western">The twins were standing a couple of metres away, watching their mother and aunt on the brink of tears.</p>
<p class="western">“<em>What will you do with your own children if you are so emotional?</em>” Rhiannon smiled, then turned to her sons. “Aunt Sookie is able to laugh and weep at the same time, what about you?”</p>
<p class="western">The boys looked puzzled, then their attention slipped back to their surroundings and they went to chase flies.</p>
<p class="western">“I don’t think I will have children,” Sookie stated flatly.</p>
<p class="western">“It’s not what I heard.”</p>
<p class="western">Sookie looked perplexed. “What?”</p>
<p class="western">The water fae waved a hand in the air. “They say Aengus and you are trying…”</p>
<p class="western">“What? Aengus and I are not even a couple, we… just have sex.”</p>
<p class="western">“Mmm,” Rhiannon lifted an eyebrow. “He barely leaves your house when he’s in Faery, unless you do it on the grass, or in the woods, or in the river, or—”</p>
<p class="western">“We fuck a lot, Rhiannon,” Sookie said without blushing, “that’s all there is to us.”</p>
<p class="western">“Aengus had never had long relationships, before.”</p>
<p class="western">“And this is a long fucking, not a relationship,” said Sookie unfazed. In a way she had accepted many fae customs, and this one was certainly one of the most interesting to include in her habits. No one paid attention to the sexual life of others, and when there was a reference to it, it was never meant as a judgement.</p>
<p class="western">“It’s the same,” Rhiannon was unimpressed by her friend’s denial. “Are you taking something?”</p>
<p class="western">“What?”</p>
<p class="western">“Contraceptive.”</p>
<p class="western">“No.” Sookie answered without thinking, then gaped at the fairy. “Oh my! I’ve been so stupid, never thought of it. My longest relationships have been with vampires and… ”</p>
<p class="western">“You definitely became more fae than you were when you came. And with that comes the fertility problem.”</p>
<p class="western">“I’m having sex with other guys too. What a stupid! I’m scared now.”</p>
<p class="western">“Or maybe there’s another hypothesis to consider.” Rhiannon closed her eyes and said: “May I?”</p>
<p class="western">“<em>Yes, come</em>.” Sookie allowed the fairy into her mind and relaxed.</p>
<p class="western">“<em>You said you didn’t want children. Think of it, please.</em>”</p>
<p class="western">“<em>There’s not much to think. I grew up thinking that having children would have put them in danger to be telepath like me, and exposed them to all the problems I had as a child. Now I don’t fear telepathy anymore, but I see things differently. Children are a project with another person, nor a lonely dream. I never met a person to have children with, therefore I don’t desire them.</em>” Sookie’s thoughts were detached and transparent.</p>
<p class="western">“<em>You really don’t want children, I see it.</em>” Rhiannon confirmed.</p>
<p class="western">“<em>So I told you.</em>”</p>
<p class="western">“Are your periods regular?”</p>
<p class="western">“I think so.”</p>
<p class="western">“Don’t you check?” Rhiannon shook her head. “Lazy… little lizard.”</p>
<p class="western">“They last two or three days, are light and painless. What should I check them for?”</p>
<p class="western">“Children are definitely out of your mind for real.” Rhiannon stared at Sookie and continued: “You really don’t want children now, and your body is dutiful obliging your mind’s wishes. When you’ll meet the man, or fae or dae, who warms your heart, beyond your bed, you’ll be fertile and very ready to wash bottoms and give your breasts a lot of trouble.”</p>
<p class="western">Sookie smiled a very little smile and nodded without mirth.</p>
<p class="western">The water fae watched her friend critically for a while, then stated flatly: “Once you were in love with someone, but things went sour, you parted and you think you will never love someone again.”</p>
<p class="western">The blond telepath smiled again, nervously. “It seems one of those romances I read as a teenager. The next in the series would be ‘the sad lover finally meets the man or the woman who will change her world and she will discover true love’, the previous being only a warm-up.”</p>
<p class="western">“In the third instalment ‘the previous lover resurfaces and wants her/him back, she will fall apart and will have to choose between the old lover and the new one’. Do you see a forth book coming?”</p>
<p class="western">“Yes, the one where ‘she leaves everybody and everything and goes to find herself’.” Sookie’s eyes swelled with unshed tears and she winced. After a while she added: “It hurts, it still hurts, Rhiannon.”</p>
<p class="western">The water fairy stood and hugged her friend tenderly. “I see that you made a good job of never thinking of him. I never saw a hint. It must be really painful.”</p>
<p class="western">Sookie nodded fighting her tears.</p>
<p class="western">“You will have a very long life, my friend. Many things will happen. Pains, joys, more pains, some happiness, all come and go. But you stand. Remember that.”</p>
<p class="western">Sookie warmed into her friend’s arms. “Why do you say that I will have a very long life? I’m over thirty-three now, and fifty more years don’t seem so long now.”</p>
<p class="western">“Fifty? You will live hundreds, weepy willow. You’re a fae, and one very strong at that.”</p>
<p class="western">“Hundreds?”</p>
<p class="western">“Your spark is a little star, my friend. Everybody see it. And you should feel it in the strength that runs through your body and allows you all things you do: your telepathy is the strongest I ever met, you read everybody, you can protect your mind even in crowded places, you can enter in other’s minds and insert thoughts/desires/memories, your charming skills are very efficient and your health is perfect. What do you think happened to you?”</p>
<p class="western">“I still think at what I cannot do…”</p>
<p class="western">“That’s why you cannot grab your magic, you don’t believe in yourself. But the flip side is… you will have a lot of time to learn to love yourself how you deserve.” Rhiannon let go of her friend and watched her smiling. “And you will learn it, Sookie, even if I have to shove it in your heart with my bare hands.”</p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western">***</p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western">It was more than five years that Sookie had come to Faery and her relationship with Niall had gone through several stages.</p>
<p class="western">At the beginning she was wary of him because of his unstable political position and his usual unwillingness to explain her the subtleties involved in that circumstance. Then, there was Dillon’s unclear place in the political and personal paradigm of their house, compounded with the fact that Dillon and his father seemed to swing back and forth in each other’s affections. Also the fact that Niall disappeared for long stretches of time did not help to stabilise Sookie’s attitude toward him.</p>
<p class="western">She had soon deduced that her great-grandfather was indeed in deepest difficulties than imagined and that his struggles with his son and other unknown adversaries had not ended at all. Her interactions with Preston Pardloe, who had come to Faery a few more times after their first encounter, had confirmed her that Niall had a lot of interests, economical or political, on Earth or elsewhere, and employed Preston and other fairies in the pursuit of his goals.</p>
<p class="western">During the last year Niall had become more present and affectionate, as well as more interested in her accomplishments in telepathic, charming and fighting skills. He often came to watch her sparring with traditional fae weapons, namely blades of different form and style, or using more prosaic objects of everyday use as impromptu offending instruments. Then, he would stay for a tea and a chat.</p>
<p class="western">Niall’s chatting skills were almost negligible, and the sessions turned into light interrogations about Sookie’s settling in in Faery, her acquaintances, her past-times, her plans. She had learned very well how to put into many words a lot of trivial information about her days and to be blunt without telling nothing of her true feelings. Her telepathic and charming talents came to her aid more than once, yet she felt ashamed to use them on her grandpa and never really delved in Niall’s mind. She caught many insights, though. Niall loved her, she had felt it many times, with the further attachment of tenderness and fear, and hid a lot from her. But, she thought, everybody hid something, herself included. When it came to her cousins, Niall asked vaguely if Aine’s hospitality was good and if Aengus’ visits were pleasant. Sookie replied that she could not have asked for better cousins, but she would have said he had showed a sting of discomfort at his grandson’s name’s mention. It was a fleeting sensation and he had moved quickly to another topic.</p>
<p class="western">Aengus was a riddle in himself, indeed. Arrogant and self-assured, he had cornered her since the first time they had met. His behaviour had been both direct and vague, as if there were two persons warring in one body. His sexual interest for her had been clear and strong since the beginning, while his overall conduct had been cold and detached. It seemed that as soon as he left her bed, or any other surface they occupied, he regarded her as a distant cousin who lived in the same house he lodged in when in Faery.</p>
<p class="western">After that first night together he had taken for granted her willingness to bed him anytime. Truly, that very same first dawn she had absolved herself of any inconsiderate offence caused to any god concerned, that of her granny’s or other entities in this different land, but had also resolved to end immediately any inappropriate activity with her cousin. A very short-lived resolution, it turned out. Aengus, in fact, had been very persuasive and his hands so expert at driving her beyond any chance of consistent thinking that when he had asked her to kiss him deeply, very deeply please, she had turned and taken him in her mouth without a second thought. Sookie had enjoyed greatly to hear him groaning and incoherently implore her to let him come. She had stopped his pleasure three times before letting him release.</p>
<p class="western">That dynamic summarised their relationship to date, the first month crystallising the pattern for good. Aengus’ high-handedness in taking for granted Sookie’s availability and her mild and wavering refusal to comply, only to see him pushing his way more effectively and her succumbing to her own drive but often retaliating in any way possible. After a week or so of this dance both relaxed and had sex without much ado. Only to start again each time he came back from one of his journey.</p>
<p class="western">Two and a half years of Aengus’ coming and going, however, had forced Sookie to realise she was captivated by that disturbingly handsome and provokingly aloof cousin. Therefore, she had made peace with the fact that when he was not around she did not miss him, and did not refrain from having short flings or welcomed exotic encounters in her trips out of Faery. No one had ever objected, so she had considered it was finally time to stop fighting her own nature.</p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western">***</p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western">Sookie and Rhiannon left for a journey to Earth dimension a week before the Ceremony of Awakening, the rite of passage for any fae who had reached maturity and sobriety. It was not related to age but to the mental and physical completion of the first stage in the fae development.</p>
<p class="western">A month ago Niall had asked her great-granddaughter to participate at the Ceremony as an entrant he would have presented to the community. Sookie had blanched, then laughed. And after that, she had quieted down and shaken her head.</p>
<p class="western">Rhiannon had to explain that the ceremony did not involve an actual exam of the entrant, at least not as a form of dangerous ritual to undergo. At present it was considered more an acceptance of the probationer who had already be tested and considered worth of admission among the fairies. The water fairy disclosed that her presentation had been delayed for a long time as she had been a very wild girl in her day.</p>
<p class="western">Sookie could not believe that her sensible friend could have ever been less than judicious.</p>
<p class="western">“And what have you done in your time to acquire such a reputation?”</p>
<p class="western">Rhiannon laughed shaking the child attached to her breast. “No, no, my nosey nanny, I won’t give you more ammunition to pester me with. Besides, it’s <em>so</em> long ago and I don’t remember very well…”</p>
<p class="western">Sookie was gently rocking back and forth with a twin in her arms, but he was not having any intention to sleep. “What about Aine?”</p>
<p class="western">“She had her ceremony not long ago, but she’s always tried to follow in Claudine’s footsteps, you already know.”</p>
<p class="western">“Yes, and Claudine is a very hard model to follow.” Sookie kissed the child and sang a little melody in his ears.</p>
<p class="western">“Stormy singer, my child won’t ever sleep with your voice, you don’t even seem fae this way!”</p>
<p class="western">“Jeez, it’s a matter between us, and he didn’t complain… yet.” Sookie scolded jokingly, then asked: “What about Aengus?”</p>
<p class="western">“He is powerful, maybe more than his father. He was one of the youngest fae I know of to have had his ceremony during his teens.”</p>
<p class="western">“Aengus?”</p>
<p class="western">“Yes, your lover is very powerful, and sensible too.”</p>
<p class="western">“He’s not my lover,” replied Sookie without real nuisance.</p>
<p class="western">“Mmm, whatever… someone thinks he’s fond of you.”</p>
<p class="western">“He’s fond of my bottom, I daresay,” Sookie giggled quietly.</p>
<p class="western">“That too, and by the way you sway it in front of him I’d say you know how to entice him.”</p>
<p class="western">“And when did you see anything like that?”</p>
<p class="western">Rhiannon released her nipple from a very sleepy child and traded him with Sookie, taking the other very awake baby in her embrace. “The last time Aengus was here at my place, a month ago maybe. You got his attention and took him to the pond’s shore, and when you two came back he looked very… used and satisfied, I’d say.”</p>
<p class="western">“Rhiannon! Did you… follow us?”</p>
<p class="western">“Prudish? My little imp is prudish? Imp prudish, imprudish, la la la…” The fairy sang the phrase as a lullaby to the child in her arms. “You did well, by the way. There were eyes that night that had better to see the power you have over him.”</p>
<p class="western">“I’d say exactly the contrary, Rhiannon, he’s the one who wields the power here. You know, I never properly read him… he is—”</p>
<p class="western">“Powerful, Sookie.” The fairy’s fluctuating hair covered her child’s face. “He is powerful. Be yourself with him, and he will stay at your feet as a loyal dog.”</p>
<p class="western">“Believe me, you got it all wrong. And obviously I am myself, and he is his haughty self, either. Always.”</p>
<p class="western">Rhiannon laughed softly. “You’re so young, Sookie, but more fae by the day. Good. You’re ready to be accepted… oh, imprudish, imprudish…”</p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western">***</p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western">Aine was very curious about her cousin’s trips and always asked Sookie a sort of report about her wanderings. Rhiannon, at the beginning of their association, had warned her to keep confidential all her learnings and all their interactions in other dimensions, so Sookie rounded her cousin’s curiosity and described places, encounters and events not very relevant to the real goal of her travels.</p>
<p class="western">“And how was this daemon you bedded?”</p>
<p class="western">“Mmm, intriguing and very hot, obviously.” Sookie spoke freely of her sexual encounters and never mentioned the mental exercises her tutor asked her to perform, or the extent of her talent. “Otherwise I’d have not bothered at all.”</p>
<p class="western">“Hot as well versed in the matter at hand, or hot as with a temperature, or…?” quipped Aine making a jolly face.</p>
<p class="western">Sookie laughed and watched intently her cousin. Although she was a wonderful female specimen, her relationships with males were scarce and not very enthusiastic. Sookie had even considered she were a repressed lesbian, even if the mere concept of repression in fae sexual behaviours was completely unheard of; but Aine had denied any homosexuality and the telepath had not pushed the subject any more. “He was hot in every way: sexy, knowledgeable, spicy and, being a daemon, had a hotter average temperature than humans or fae, around 100°F instead of 98°F.” Sookie gave always slightly exaggerated accounts of her flings which, to be true, had become boring and not that exotic any longer.</p>
<p class="western">“And vampires? You never told me about a hot night with one of them.”</p>
<p class="western">“Because I stay clear of them,” said Sookie dismissively.</p>
<p class="western">“But you were married to one, no? You never mentioned him. Is it true they are cold and dead?” It was the first time Aine directly asked about that part of her past, and Sookie realised it was a long time since she had thought about it herself.</p>
<p class="western">“Not cold, slightly cooler than us, say 97°F or so. As for the dead part, I never met people more alive.” She had had the same curiosity at her time and Bill Compton had supplied answers, at least those little explanation vampires knew. In fact, no one had ever told anything sensible on the origin of vampires, only fantastic speculations. “When they rest or, as they humorously say ‘die for the day’, their sleep is very deep, I’d say almost coma-like, and only the oldest ones can fight it and stay awake.” She remembered the Rhodes’ bombing and her heart faltered.</p>
<p class="western">Aine was about to comment more when the figure of Aengus came into sight, arriving from the clearing before the little wood that surrounded their house. He walked steadily in long sinuous strides, looking towards them sitting under the porch.</p>
<p class="western">“Aengus is back sooner than expected.” Aine smiled thinly. “I think he came for your ceremony…”</p>
<p class="western">“What…? How did he know?”</p>
<p class="western">“Niall is very proud of you. I think he wants all the family around you this time.” Aine touched her arm in an affectionate gesture. “We’re all proud of you. The Brigant is a strong line and you lived up to our name.”</p>
<p class="western">Aengus was closing the distance quickly, his jet black hair waving around his face. He was in a pensive mood, maybe worried. He went up the stairs to the porch, without stopping. “Sister, cousin.” Then, he disappeared into the house and out of it for the rest of the day.</p>
<p class="western">That night his lovemaking was angry and withdrawn, then passionate and tender, and the last time slow, intended, bittersweet.</p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western">***</p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western">Three fairies, two males and Sookie, were presented for the Ceremony. Niall introduced his great-granddaughter visibly moved and led the first dance with her, then Sookie danced with Dermot and after with Aengus.</p>
<p class="western">The event was held in the great Brigants mansion, one of the few large constructions in the Orlagh’s Valleys, a wonderful well-watered lowland which extended for kilometres. It was a series of large structures in stone and wood, lighted by lamps and candles fuelled by magic energy, situated on the shore of a lake and surrounded by an orchard, a park and a wood. No one ever lived there on a permanent basis, but the site was used for formal gatherings and diplomatic meetings.</p>
<p class="western">However, it was in the vast park that the real ceremony took place, below large tents and pavilions. Foods and drinks invaded tables and floated on trays among the guests, and the music flooded the air from the tall trees, where musicians hung like noisy fruits. Probably these gatherings, and the sweet, enchanted atmosphere they exuded, had earned the fairies the charming representation described in human folklore. It had been a clumsy choice, most certainly induced by the same fairies, to infer the flavour of the whole plant by that little seed.</p>
<p class="western">Sookie, therefore, was worried and expected any moment a test to pass, and probably fail. She felt uneasy in the dress of precious weightless material Aine had presented her with, a lavender robe without sleeves and a deep neckline that waved around her of its own volition. It was not a dress made to fight, and she had hidden only a small knife in the inside of a thigh. Chadwick, though, at her request, had positioned some blades in different spots around the park and its structures.</p>
<p class="western">Sookie breathed deeply and looked at the guests around the makeshift dance floor, then at those crowded under the grand pavilion and below the smaller tents scattered around the clearing. She listened with her higher senses, expanding her range of hearing slowly, encompassing all the partygoers. Then she untangled and combed the thoughts fluctuating around her searching for any danger, opening several channels of attention, and after that she pushed her listening beyond and continued for several minutes holding open up to thirty-two channels of inoffensive, and mostly boring, chitchat.</p>
<p class="western">Assured that nothing was about to happen, Sookie grabbed a glass of wine and went to ask dancing to the two other entrants of the ceremony. Both refused in a very polite and articulate way and Sookie delved quickly in their minds only to see embarrass and a firm intention to avoid her presence. Sookie looked puzzled and asked Dermot to dance. His great-uncle declined with a smile and said something that Sookie did not listen to, while his mind diffused discomfort and sorrow. The telepath paused and expanded her mind again, trimming the background of chattering brains and focusing on the general mood.</p>
<p class="western">It was then that she heard two minds giggling freely at the edge of her awareness. She followed the swings of those mind waves and spotted Rhiannon and Aengus, in the back of one of the smaller tents, sitting on a sofa in companionable silence.</p>
<p class="western">“Well, well,” said Sookie sitting between them, turning her back to Aengus. “My very bitch cousin, and my favourite fae-dae. Rhiannon, what of you? Colluding with him against me?”</p>
<p class="western">The daemon-fairy smiled broadly with satisfaction. “My frisky fae friend, you just made me win a sweet bet.”</p>
<p class="western">“Don’t tell me… can we share the benefits?”</p>
<p class="western">Rhiannon tilted her head and told her something, but Sookie felt a rush around her, the air in her lungs went out all of a sudden and she was in Aengus’ arms in a dim lit room with wooden furniture and rich textiles.</p>
<p class="western">“What?” said Sookie in English as she regained some presence of mind. “You pompous asshole, you teleported me!”</p>
<p class="western">“Little fae,” his voice was chilly but his hands were gently fondling her, “it’s late and you are tired, I thought to accompany you to your room for tonight.” His hair, held loosely back, touched his shoulders and let out one pointed ear. His black eyes gave nothing away.</p>
<p class="western">Sookie pushed her mind into the fringe of Aengus’ awareness and her body against his. “It’s not late and I’m not tired, yet.”</p>
<p class="western">“Do it. You’ve been too timid with me.” His mind was plain and neat, a vertical cliff without handholds or openings. Sookie lingered a long time around its periphery and fought her fear to know.</p>
<p class="western">“No,” she said finally, “you tell me, if you want.”</p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western"> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0014"><h2>14. Chapter 14</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="western"> </p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">There’s no honourable way to kill, no gentle way to destroy. There is nothing good in war. Except its ending.</p><p class="western">(<em>Abraham Lincoln</em>, American statesman and lawyer)</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">Eric was somehow disappointed at the easiness of Louisiana and Arkansas takeover. But, given all the inside intelligence he had gathered, compounded with Nevada’s weak hold on the countries and his shortsightedness, there was not real resistance to win. Even without help from local weres or disgruntled vampires who were not happy with Nevada’s rule, the outcome would have been the same.</p><p class="western">His children and some of his former underlings in Area Five, Alcide’s pack, a generous number of weres from Oklahoma and his human mercenaries, gift of Adrienne Bakkali, comprised his main army. Along with his thirst.</p><p class="western">Pamela’s intelligence about a secret council of Louisiana’s Regent and her representative in Arkansas, along with some high ranked vampires in Nevada’s payroll, provided the likely date for the strike. The meeting was to be held in Jefferson County, AR, just south of Little Rock, and the sheriff of Area Five was due to be there on the second and last night of the gathering.</p><p class="western">Exactly that night, before sunset, the operation denominated <em>Sophie-Anne is back</em> was launched.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">***</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">Eric wore the special suit the queen of Alabama had given him a week earlier. It was a by-product of the aerospace research industry she owned, and provided a total screen from solar radiations.</p><p class="western">Vampires were known to fear the star that lit the planet and the legends of vampires burned to ashes under its rays confirmed the circumstance. What was less known, indeed, was that the radiations from the sun were lethal in large doses and only if direct. Any screen from its rays was viable to allow a direct exposure without consequences. Space walks around the Mir proved that for humans. Vampires, however, were modified humans and as such more sensitive to the sun’s rays even with the screen offered by the atmosphere.</p><p class="western">The suit Eric wore was made of a special fabric that blocked all emissions (gamma rays, X-rays, ultraviolet, infrared, visible light) and reflected all light, offering at the same time a good camouflage. Therefore, that late evening Eric’s figure disappeared in the park around the isolated mansion in Jefferson County, where the Regent of Louisiana was holding her council. His head-up display helmet secured a video connection to his fighters. Alan Ford and Minuette Macon were at his sides some thirty metres ahead, along with some weres and a good number of mercenaries.</p><p class="western">The intelligence on which they relied had allowed Eric’s men to infiltrate into the precinct of the residence and now it was up to him to give the order to attack.</p><p class="western">Weeks of frenetic preparation boiled down to a simple instant in which Eric felt the urgency to draw blood from whomever crossed his path. It was not a kingdom he was after, nor revenge or retaliation of any sort. He just craved blood. And a lot of it.</p><p class="western">As soon as he received confirmation of the first strike in Louisiana, Eric barked the order and swung his sword leading into the house from a back door.</p><p class="western">Ford and his weres, along with the mercenaries especially trained to fight against vampires, prowled over the house with machine guns loaded with silver bullets and a varied array of blades. It was less than five minutes from sunset and the only soldiers in duty were weres. After twenty minutes of fighting only four out of eighteen weres guarding the house were alive.</p><p class="western">The timing had been critical as most of the operating personnel was preparing for the changing of the guard, given that half an hour after sunset vampire guards were to come on duty.</p><p class="western">Eric had killed every individual who had had the misfortune to be in his way, without regard to their qualification as soldier or house servant. After a few minutes the air smelled of gunpowder, blood, faeces and urine and resounded with whimpers and sloshing footsteps over body fluids. Some weres had had the time to shift into their other shape, and some paws and fur were scattered among the debris left by the stealthy invaders.</p><p class="western">Eric stopped in front of the armoury on the right wall of the control room. This latter was equipped with some computers and a panel accommodating a set of electronic switches, mostly for windows blinds and door locks or cameras and motion detectors’ alarms. He had discarded his helmet since entering the house and his hair was soaked in blood and sweat.</p><p class="western">“How many did we lose?” he asked.</p><p class="western">“Three dead and three injured, sir.” Ford’s words were clipped, his eyes on one of the monitor over the console that occupied most of the room.</p><p class="western">“Why are they alive?” Eric nodded toward the two weres and two humans who were standing in a corner of the room, tied and gagged.</p><p class="western">“For interrogation,” said Ford looking at the vampire. “The men are those in charge of the control room, and the two weres are officials, I think.”</p><p class="western">Eric shook his head as if to shrug off his fighting high and blood thirst. The excitement still rolled in his veins and his eyes had the hollow coldness of a predator looking for prey. In fact, he was not sated.</p><p class="western">“How long till the vampire guards show up?” Eric asked through clenched teeth.</p><p class="western">“Three minutes, according to their schedule,” said Ford checking his weapons. “Minuette will stay here to answer positively as the Regent and her guests ask for security clearance—”</p><p class="western">“Good,” Eric cut off, “let’s go meeting our guests.”</p><p class="western">Most vampires, if wanted to reach a significant age, protected their resting place with the utmost security they could afford, given that their sleeping quality was close to that of a coma, leaving them at their most vulnerable. Therefore, if they had to rest in a different place than their usual one, they took all the precautions necessary to ensure a safe rest and a safer awakening. Pamela had informed about the security procedures adopted: it seemed that the Regent, after two and a half months of red code state of alert (suspiciously before and after Oklahoma’s takeover), had relaxed the security and reverted to a mild watchfulness. In fact, all the intelligence and counterintelligence traded among the neighbouring states during those months, had convinced Nevada and his Regent that all the moves in their area had concerned mostly Oklahoma and not a real danger for their countries.</p><p class="western">Therefore, Eric and his two swords waited the arrival of the vampire guards while Ford and his weres lingered in the hallway up on the first floor, waiting for the Regent’s waking up. The mercenaries, armed with silver nets, tasers and silver ammunition, flanked both.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">***</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">Just a few minutes, but to Eric felt longer and heavier. The not yet fully regained freedom a pins and needles sensation in his gut.</p><p class="western">As soon as the security door at the back of the house chimed and the display at its side showed that it was being opened with the right code, Eric stood ready to jump on whoever would just come out of it.</p><p class="western">It was a male vampire, quite young by the slowness of his response and the weakness of his body. Eric removed his head with a neat stroke of his left sword and did not bother to see his body falling to the floor with a loud thud or to hear the hiss of his jugular artery losing its red juice. The second in line was another male vampire, shorter and bulkier than the first. Eric cut his head and locked eyes with the third one, a vampiress who was still fastening her shoulder belt, the one that housed the sheaths for knife and sword. Her irises disappeared as her pupils dilated and a faint comprehension dawned in her mind: she was about to die, definitely.</p><p class="western">Eric’s sword excised her head and her body stood straight a little more before falling over the corpse of one of her companions. Eric winced in disapproval as part of his mind assessed the sloppiness and inexperience of those guards who came in for duty as if going to a party. Totally trusting the thumbs up received from the security control room’s guys and never assuming that something could have been wrong there. They relied on their gadgets and entered the house expecting to replace day guards as usual. Second mistake, Eric listed mentally. The first one had been appointing so unqualified soldiers to the security, especially the official in charge of the squad.</p><p class="western">Eric briefly wondered if he had already killed the leader or if he had a chance to have a better fight than that that had been served to him until now. At that moment the rest of the soldiers, six vampires, surrounded him forming a semicircle, their blades drawn. Third mistake, Eric thought drily. They left his back to his mercenaries who, as he had ordered, held on behind him in the service room where the guards were pouring in. The vampires fanned out in front of him without protection.</p><p class="western">Eric swiped his right sword, the one Johnsson had made for him a decade ago, while crouching down to his left. One vampire fell with both legs severed at the femur and another looked dazed at his smashed kneecaps while dropping over them. As no throat was damaged their pained and surprised outcries filled the little room adding a shiver of pleasure to Eric’s back. That was the right sound to hear in a battle field, the one that pushed ahead the bravest and terrified the weaker.</p><p class="western">The remaining four vampires closed in toward Eric at the same time, blades forward and faces hardened. Eric had fully entered his fighting mode and his time was flowing slower and thicker, allowing him to see in advance every move he intended to make and those his opponents would be forced to make to respond to his.</p><p class="western">He jumped and hovered over them, then landed at their backs and two other heads fell to the floor. There was no thrill nor satisfaction in this slaughtering, but the blood that covered every horizontal and vertical surface quenched some of his thirst.</p><p class="western">Two pairs of eyes turned to watch him: with determination, the greenish set, and uncertainty, the blue set. Something hardened in Eric’s chest, as if an alien hand clenching his internal organs had also pulled out one or two of them and he was fighting against that robbery. Green eyes, as those of his late wife, blue eyes, as those of his lost wife.</p><p class="western">Eric roared and charged the two vampires.</p><p class="western">The protections he was wearing under the light-tight suit shielded him from bullets and blades but not from tasers. His head and neck, on the contrary, were exposed. Vampires still preferred to fight with blades, as bullets and other weapons could not definitely kill their strong and resilient bodies, while a severed head would positively do as well as, given a few minutes, an open artery or some removed limbs. That was where everybody aimed at.</p><p class="western">The green eyed vampire faced Eric’s charge in a defensive position but his brain was still processing the unexpected situation and did not react with due sharpness. Eric cut off the hand holding the sword and kicked hard his chest sending him over a dirty wall. Eric could have easily beheaded the vampire but in that moment he wanted pain. To inflict damage. Then he felt the blow on his right collarbone and turned. The blue eyed vampire, at least twelve centimetres shorter than him but heavy set and solid, was aiming again his dagger attempting to hit Eric’s neck. Eric smiled a stupid smile and bent backward, avoiding the point of the blade for a mere centimetre, then swiped his leg over the vampire’s knees and punched him with the hilt of his sword over his temple. The vampire staggered but did not fall.</p><p class="western">So Eric made another very ludicrous move, he realised afterward, but the need to get really dirty had overwhelmed any good sense. Eric sheathed his blades and, roaring like an injured beast, gripped the vampire’s head and ripped his eyeballs with his thumbs. Eric’s grimace was one of disgust. For himself. He just could not stop.</p><p class="western">The green eyed vampire had patched roughly his bloody stump and was clumsy aiming his pistol to Eric’s head and firing. He was not ambidextrous. Eric had all the time to turn and smile another dull smile before crushing the other’s throat with a ferocious bite. Eric’s temple was bruised where the bullet has scratched his skin, but the loud ringing of the shot absorbed all sounds and sensations.</p><p class="western">Minuette’s yellow eyes were on Eric as a piece of the vampire’s windpipe still dripped from his mouth.</p><p class="western">“The Regent and his guests wait for you in the sitting room at the entrance,” she said without flinching.</p><p class="western">Eric spat the tissue and watched as the vampire’s green eyes lost the last drop of life, then stood, swiped a sleeve over the face and said: “Where’s a toilet?”</p><p class="western">“Two doors on the right,” said Minuette pointing back with a thumb. Then added: “Anyone alive?”</p><p class="western">“The one without eyes,” said Eric walking away from his carnage.</p><p class="western">The mercenaries who should have backed him were lined in the narrow hallway beyond the room where the nine vampires had met their fate. No one said a word as Eric passed them. The blood under their feet was telling enough.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">***</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">Four days after Eric was sitting in the former Regent’s residence’s audience room in New Orleans, flanked by Pamela, in very good spirits, and Thalia, in her usual somber mood.</p><p class="western">The last days had been very tiring and demanding. Eric had led his mercenaries and some trusted weres hunting the last pockets of resistance in southern and western Arkansas; mainly old subjects of Peter Threadgill, the late king killed by the second-in-command of queen Sophie-Anne, who did not abide to Nevada’s rule.</p><p class="western">Eric was still letting free his blood frenzy and was not keen to let live who did not accept instantly his authority. Sophie-Anne had been injured in Rhodes not longer after the annexation of Arkansas to her queendom and had not had time and energy to spend reining the country back into her folds. Now, after a few years of disastrous Felipe’s administration, it was about time someone taught them how to behave.</p><p class="western">The day before the old greek vampiress had come to look for him in the forests. And take him back to the present time.</p><p class="western">“Eric, hold yourself back,” had snapped Thalia looking at the blond viking coming through the forest toward the little wooden cabin, clothes soaked in blood, mud and water. She had joined him in Arkansas after the sheriff of Area Five had secured north Louisiana and reunited with her sister in Baton Rouge, the toughest Area to curb in the country.</p><p class="western">Eric looked at the ancient greek vampiress, small and dark but lethal in her wilderness. “Thalia,” he was pissed off at her remark and what it implied. “I remember to have told you to stay in Little Rock.”</p><p class="western">“Pam and Karin called. You’re needed in New Orleans.”</p><p class="western">“How did you know where I was?” asked he entering the little spartan cabin and discharging his weapons on a table.</p><p class="western">“I followed a red track,” stated Thalia. “If I was known to be a little wild, now you beat me ten to one. What happened to you?”</p><p class="western">Eric growled and shrugged his shoulders. “Don’t dare to say—”</p><p class="western">“Well, then clean up and go to take your kingdom,” the vampiress smiled without mirth. “If you needed to make a point, you made a whole drawing.”</p><p class="western">Eric stared at her for a minute, then turned and headed to the basic service at the back of the cabin. A cold shower could help clear his mind from the red fog covering every thought.</p><p class="western">Now, standing in front of the vampires swiftly filling the large room, Eric thought back at the few days just passed. His life had completely changed and he was not sure it was for the better, given that a nagging thought sitting behind his skull kept reminding him that this was not what he had ever imagined for himself.</p><p class="western">He agreed with all the rational considerations about the circumstances that brought him there, though a kingdom had never been in his agenda. He had been prodded and goaded and led here by events out of his control, and now it seemed very official. The Amun Clan’s Council had sanctioned his temporary administration of both Louisiana and Arkansas till the next summit in which, as per tradition, his claim would have been accepted and he would have been crowned king. The whole proceedings would have been very formal but in a business-like way, without frills and special effects.</p><p class="western">“This one is the Regent’s second,” Pamela whispered in his ear. “I’ve already talked to you about him. The name is Maximilian Kainz, from Austria, much older than me but behaved always tactfully. He’s cut me some slack… and was never thrilled to carry on the Regent’s most peculiar task. He can be tried.”</p><p class="western">The vampire in front of Eric was tall and muscular, his dark blond hair combed neatly with a lateral parting. He stopped in front of Eric and bowed deeply. “Northman.”</p><p class="western">“My child suggested that you might be interested in changing… employer. Is that your wish?” Eric looked at the vampire and noticed a faint glint crossing his hazel eyes, then a schooled dullness replaced it.</p><p class="western">“Unfortunately, my wishes are irrelevant,” his voice deep and level, “my being the Regent’s second was a debt I owe to Nevada, and it’s not over yet. I’m afraid I have to ask you to send me back to him. Dead or alive as you prefer, obviously.”</p><p class="western">Eric was all to familiar with this kind of debt, having being traded umpteen times by his maker as enforcer or whatever fancied him and best served his needs. What was unusual was still finding this kind of arrangement in the twenty-first century.</p><p class="western">“I guess you’ve already tried to convert the debt in a sum of money.”</p><p class="western">“Felipe did not accept,” stated Kainz.</p><p class="western">“Nevada owes me some compensation for some… non-fulfilment of agreed addenda to a contract,” Eric paused. “Would you mind to be my prisoner till I formally claim damages and see what the clan’s council rules?”</p><p class="western">“Then I would owe you my debt?”</p><p class="western">“No,” Eric thought about all the decades of his life spent under the harsh rule of petty masters. “You will collaborate with my vampires showing the ropes of what happened here in the last three years. If I’m satisfied I will offer you a position and a generous allowance, then you’ll make up your mind.”</p><p class="western">“…and if you are not satisfied?” Kainz’s smile was lopsided and resembled more a wince.</p><p class="western">“You’ll be free.”</p><p class="western">Kainz stood still for a few minutes, then bowed and said: “Let’s cut it short. As a prisoner I can let you in in what business we were having here.”</p><p class="western">Eric nodded and dismissed the vampire. This one was the third and last of those vampires Pamela had pinpointed as valuable assets to win. As for the rest, some had been executed immediately and some had been left in their positions, mostly harmless. But in the following months his new administration would have followed them in every step.</p><p class="western">The building of a government, however a shadow one, had begun.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0015"><h2>15. Chapter 15</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="western"> </p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">And if a man cause a blemish in his neighbour; as he hath done, so shall it be done to him;</p><p class="western">breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth: as he hath caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be done to him again.</p><p class="western">(<em>Leviticus 24: 19-20, Holy Bible, KJV</em>)</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">The joy to have his children and his freedom back had slowly filled Eric’s heart and only now, a fortnight after his takeover, he felt the real excitement bubbling into his stomach. Or, maybe, only now after two and a half months since his exile in Oklahoma had ended Eric allowed himself to think everything was real. No one was to snatch again his life from under his nose.</p><p class="western">All this joy, though, had a less merry counterpart, even if it could result in an intriguing play for his manipulative and overbearing nature. The prodding and goading of his neighbours had landed him a country to govern, but now he felt the responsibility of all the vampires, a good part not even come out of the coffin, under his rule.</p><p class="western">Most of the Regent’s retinue had been discarded and a few executed, while the administrative and legal frameworks were been tested and evaluated. It would take months to have a decent overview of the human resources and their level of compatibility with the new regime.</p><p class="western">Meanwhile, Eric had to find his ground.</p><p class="western">Unfortunately, among all the information that Pamela and his underlings had dumped on his desk, one had set a fire in his gut. It was something he had not thought once since leaving Oklahoma and now it represented his entire horizon.</p><p class="western">Sookie had left Bon Temps and no one knew where she was.</p><p class="western">Eric had been somehow ready to discover she was with the shifter or with anyone else, but not that she had disappeared. He could have coped with her being with another man and would have overseen her well-being and done whatever required to guarantee her protection from all supernaturals.</p><p class="western">But she was not there.</p><p class="western">Simply that.</p><p class="western">She was not in his world in a very tangible way and he had not been prepared for that. He had barely come to terms with the circumstance that she was not his wife any longer, that she would live her brief life far from him, that she would forget him, that she would soon die and he would continue to live. Without her. Without having had a real chance to be with her.</p><p class="western">Her absence, therefore, was a low blow to Eric’s already shaking standpoint when her first wife was involved.</p><p class="western">He had temporally taken residence in New Orleans’ Regent’s official place, which was the same building Sophie-Anne had used as palace of representation. The last Regent had not changed much as far as decor or security measures were concerned, so the place let the late queen’s presence fill the rooms. Dark red heavy curtains and fanciful brocade over sofas and beds, plump cushions, thick rugs and old, restless paintings. Someone from the past watching him. It was a haunting quality Eric found bitter and felt as a scratching sound on his teeth.</p><p class="western">He leaned over the balcony of the room Karin had cleared for him and watched the trees’ foliage not swinging through the still, scented air. It was the first night Eric had retired early. His phone buzzed in the jacket’s pocket.</p><p class="western">“Pam,” he said.</p><p class="western">“Eric,” she ignored his bleak tone. “Karin told me you just retired.” Her jolly mood hit his nerves. And she continued, “I wanted to know what to do with the job you asked of me.”</p><p class="western">Eric frowned. Then nodded. “Where is he?”</p><p class="western">“Shreveport.”</p><p class="western">“I’ll join you there in two days.”</p><p class="western">“Eric,” Pamela said without cheerfulness, “is that what I think?”</p><p class="western">“Much more, my child” Eric said.</p><p class="western">“I’ll see you at Fangtasia, then.”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">***</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">Much has been said and written about revenge but rarely has been mentioned its most important quality. That it balances things out. And it does it in the most complete and satisfying way possible: it brings justice to the very individual who has pursued it and also gives that same individual a sense of purpose and accomplishment that lacks totally in justice done through intermediaries.</p><p class="western">Revenge is perfect justice in its rough and basic nature. It is the simplest, natural way to administer justice and gives it its maximum strength.</p><p class="western">Those who have sought it through tribunals or third parties have never experienced its harshness and fulfilment as those who have pursued it personally. Revenge could fill a life with the warm comfort of knowing exactly what one is supposed to do of his time. Which are his priorities in life. Who are his loved ones.</p><p class="western">Further, administering direct justice gives the word balance its true and unavoidable meaning: it is only the wronged one who knows what would appease his loss, what would bring balance back to their souls. It could not possibly be any one else’s decision to gauge the exact retribution due for one’s offence. Indeed, different people could come up with different punishments in order to balance the same wrong. And it is just right to give every one the chance to find and unleash them on their own.</p><p class="western">To this end, even the old laws of retaliation according to ancient populations were not well structured. In fact, in most cases the punishment was one and the same as the offence caused. But this did not always bring justice to the offended: the death or mutilation of a loved wife is not the same as the death or mutilation of a neglected spouse.</p><p class="western">Some more consideration had to be given to the right punishment for an offence, and that kind of careful thought had to be done by the offended alone.</p><p class="western">Eric had given the thought some of his time. A lot of his time, indeed.</p><p class="western">What kind of penalty could it be administered to restore his inner balance for the crime committed against his right to direct his life?</p><p class="western">What kind of retribution could it be given to match the loss of his chance to happiness?</p><p class="western">What kind of sanction could it be presented with the one who caused him a great pain and no possibility of appeasement?</p><p class="western">All of them were questions to be answered in the following hour as Eric approached Shreveport and the source of most of his current and less recent pains.</p><p class="western">Roxanne Hayes, former head of security for the late queen of Oklahoma, had been released from his position by Adrianne Bakkali and had offered her services, in any capacity, to the soon-to-be king of Louisiana and Arkansas. Eric had accepted her pledge and now she served as one of his personal guards.</p><p class="western">At the moment the vampiress was driving the sleek black Mercedes that took Eric closer and closer to the answers which were bothering him. He rested in the back seat and watched the cars headlights sped at his left in a blaze of orange, light bluish or blinding white. A light smell of new leather filled the inside of the car. Somebody’s skin. The thought blinked in his mind and he could not track back its origin. Not that he cared. The road from Alexandria to Shreveport was not very busy and the driving time could have been useful to collect his thoughts. But he did not even try to rein them in.</p><p class="western">As Roxanne turned into the Fangtasia’s parking lot Eric felt a jolt of anger in his chest. All the joy and expectations that had surrounded the building and running of the club had disappeared the last months he had spent in there. Victor Madden, then Ocella and Freyda had tainted the successful enterprise into a doomed place where his life had turned upside down despite all his efforts to steer it into the right course. Another thought he could have dispensed with. A good memory was not a good companion.</p><p class="western">Monday. Therefore the club was closed and the parking area had only few cars and a dead streetlamp. The back door opened and the figure of Pamela stood out lit from the dim lights inside. Eric opened the bond with his child and let himself be flooded by the love and joy Pamela visibly radiated.</p><p class="western">“Maker,” Pamela said cheerfully as Eric approached, “this is your true coming back home.”</p><p class="western">Eric smiled as all his rage dissipated in the embrace with his daughter. “Child,” he held tightly the smaller vampire and kissed her forehead. “You are a piece of my home, but this club has become really your own, if I have to trust what Karin told me.”</p><p class="western">Pamela rested her head on Eric’s chest. “I did change the decor and a few things here and there…”</p><p class="western">Following Pamela inside the club Eric appreciated the very elegant and expensive ambiance she had realised. Dark colours and precious furniture without any flashy or gaudy touch to taint the sober simplicity that pervaded the place. Tame but with claws, albeit retracted.</p><p class="western">“Fangbangers are not the usual clientele any more,” Pamela said introducing Eric to the vestibule of the nightclub. “And vampires decide if they want to mingle with humans or if they prefer to stay among our kind. There are two different parts to the club, now.”</p><p class="western">“And what would they find in our separated area?”</p><p class="western">“Exactly what they would have found in the clubs we had back when no one thought vampires were real, with the difference that the donors we accept are paying a hefty fee for the privilege.” Pamela said. “Well, most of them anyway.”</p><p class="western">“Mmm. You should have started this other business elsewhere.”</p><p class="western">“Eric, there are already other clubs elsewhere that cater for those who still pretend to adhere to the old ways but do not want to risk much for the thrill of hunting their meals.”</p><p class="western">“So, what’s different here?”</p><p class="western">“Our main clientele is still human,” explained Pamela. “And you can’t imagine how many humans are willing to pay for a real vampire hunting experience.” The vampiress opened a door, perfectly masked in a seamless wall, which led to a staircase descending to the basement. “Here Fangtasia gets more real.”</p><p class="western">Eric watched the sombre interiors: shielded lamps suggested, more than lightened, the string of rooms and alcoves along the hallway. Dark reds and greys, mostly. “This basement was not here before.”</p><p class="western">“I enlarged our illegal first basement. Now it’s three times its previous area, and there’s a door connecting the two,” Pamela said. “Some of our most affluent clientele pay to see what happens sometimes in our old basement.” After a pause the vampiress added, “And some others pay even more to participate.”</p><p class="western">“Are you outsourcing your duties as sheriff?”</p><p class="western">“Not at all, but there’s no point in not gaining some cash doing something that I would do in any case.”</p><p class="western">“It’s dangerous,” Eric observed. “But, if I have taught you anything, I think you took all the precautions possible.”</p><p class="western">“Two of our first guests in our small dungeon were our most honourable mayor and… our not less highly regarded chief of police.” Pamela watched her dark purple nails. An aubergine shade. “All recorded just in case they forgot the wonderful experience they had here.”</p><p class="western">“And I guess only powerful and rich guests are admitted here…”</p><p class="western">“Politicians, high rank civil servants, military and so on.”</p><p class="western">“It helps business.”</p><p class="western">“And we are just indulging those little craps the way others would do in our place,” concluded Pamela.</p><p class="western">They were still in the corridor connecting the new basement to the old one when a far whimpering sound echoed faintly. Eric’s questioning look increased as a vague smell of urine and faeces invaded his nostrils.</p><p class="western">“That little excuse for a vampire!” Pamela exclaimed irritated as the pungent odour assaulted her nose and the whining grew louder as they approached the entrance to the basement used as temporary jail for her sheriff’s obligations. “I tasked the Dull to clean the place once a day and keep an eye to your priso—”</p><p class="western">“You keep him here?” asked Eric striding faster to the padded door at the end of the corridor. As soon as he reached it he paused and let the delicate tendrils of hatred fill his chest to capacity. It did not take long.</p><p class="western">The door was ajar and from there both the sound and the smell were stronger. Eric pulled the door open and noticed how the small corridor of his old basement had retained all its charm: concrete walls and floor, bright cold lights dangling at little intervals in the twelve metre corridor, armoured doors freshly painted a bland shade of grey. The change of ambiance perfectly suiting the mood Eric was letting himself plunge into.</p><p class="western">Pamela closed the door behind them, showing the other side of it had also embraced the raw decor of the Base, as the old basement of Fangtasia had always been referred to, but its metallic covering shone in a bright shade of crimson.</p><p class="western">The whining had been replaced by the sound of feet rubbing over a rugged surface and the stilted voice of a man cursing unintelligibly, then by the abrupt start of a vacuum cleaner.</p><p class="western">Eric turned and lifted his brow.</p><p class="western">“The Dull, I guess. Cleaning, I guess,” Pamela had lost all her easy demeanour. “I don’t know why I still keep that beast.”</p><p class="western">She advanced stiffly to the only door ajar and called, “Tádé!”</p><p class="western">All sounds ceased, only Eric’s footsteps echoed as he followed Pamela.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">***</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">The room was divided in two areas by bars and a thick bulletproof glass reinforced with a silver net, both sliding back into the walls when opened.</p><p class="western">The antechamber was spacious and furnished with a utilitarian small desk and a chair on the right side, two steel and leather armchairs in the middle and a large wooden cupboard on the opposite wall.</p><p class="western">The cell itself was a cramped space barely able to host one person, but given that there was no furniture at all the eventual resident could lie down and dedicate the right hand area around the sewer hole to his ejecta. That was possible only when the inmate was unchained. The only accessories to the cell were two metallic rings at each opposing wall of the sixty square feet space, each one sporting a heavy silver chain.</p><p class="western">At the moment one chain was attached to the silver collar around the prisoner’s neck and the other to his left ankle. Both glass and bars were in place.</p><p class="western">Eric sat on one of the armchairs and looked at the prisoner, now unconscious as Tádé the Dull had grilled him with a heavy discharge of power before cleaning the cell. Pamela occupied the other seat.</p><p class="western">“What kind of name is this Tádé?” asked Eric without turning his eyes from the prisoner.</p><p class="western">“Hungarian sort of name, I was told,” the vampiress said. “The guy’s deaf and seems not to have learned much in two hundred years or so.”</p><p class="western">“So, he’s just for cleaning and guard an inert and already well kept prisoner?”</p><p class="western">“For interrogations,” she said pointing to the vampire standing outside the cell. “He does what requested to without questioning or adding, subtracting on his own. He’s… differently smart.” Then she added, “But within his limits he’s quite reliable.”</p><p class="western">The prisoner began to move a limb. Eric followed his movements, his face hard and remote.</p><p class="western">“What has he done lately to deserve your attention?” asked Pamela.</p><p class="western">“He still exists.”</p><p class="western">“Besides that?”</p><p class="western">“I should have dealt with him long ago,” said Eric. “Probably it would have saved a lot of unpleasantries for both of us.”</p><p class="western">“That’s for sure, maker.” Pamela watched the vampire. “Our gentleman is waking up, it seems.”</p><p class="western">The prisoner was naked and still dripping water from the vigorous cleaning administered by the Dull. He opened his eyes and turned his head to assess his bearings. Nothing had changed. Then he focused on the figures sitting beyond the bars and a flicker of recognition passed in his eyes.</p><p class="western">“We meet again,” Eric’s voice bounced on the walls breaking into sharp vowels. Like obsidian slivers thrown carelessly.</p><p class="western">“Eric,” the prisoner paused as his laboured breath constricted his chest. “There must… be a… misunderstanding.”</p><p class="western">“Did I ever allowed you to address me with my first name?”</p><p class="western">The chained vampire tried to seat in an upright position, but the chains prevented most movements. “How should I address you, then? Consort?”</p><p class="western">Eric frowned as if that past belonged to another life, then smiled. The prisoner had been caught when the end of the queen of Oklahoma had been still kept secret to allow a smooth transition of power. Yet the vampire’s attempt to remind him of his captivity stung.</p><p class="western">“I would rather not to be addressed by the like of you in any way,” Eric said, “and our further interaction won’t need any addressing from your part, rest assured.”</p><p class="western">William Thomas Compton’s anus tightened painfully, and his genitalia shrank inside, as to protect themselves from the sudden coldness generated by the other vampire’s voice.</p><p class="western">“I just have a few questions for you,” Eric pushed a button on the remote control and the silvered glass parted in two, each sheet sliding into the walls. The lingering smell of ejecta puffed toward Eric and Pamela, making them pull back with the first inhale. They were silent for a while.</p><p class="western">Vampires’ excreta had a different colour and consistence than those of humans. Given that their diet was made up of just blood and water, both urine and faeces had a darker shade of, respectively, yellow and brown, turning more into light orange and almost black. The legends purposely portrayed the vampires as avid blood drinkers, to incite the most terror from humans, but avoided to explain where all that blood was supposed to end up in the vampire’s body. Then, in the nineteenth century, inspired and inventive writers had informed the curious populace that that awful kind did not excrete at all. It had been easier, therefore, to prove that one was not a vampire by urinating in front of the dubious peasants. Indeed, during the almost ten years since the Great Reveal, this tenet had not been shaken off and most humans still believed vampires gorged in blood but retained all of it without blowing up in a red explosion.</p><p class="western">“Did you sell the information to Felipe, or was it part of a more detailed database you were working up at?”</p><p class="western">Pamela lifted an eyebrow and focused on Compton’s reaction.</p><p class="western">“What do… you mean?” The prisoner’s eyes opened painfully and his body’s tremor increased. Though, the temperature was not an issue.</p><p class="western">“Did you know, Pam, that our tireless compiler collected more data than those showed in his official database?” Eric tried to enjoy the fear so readable in the vampire’s body. And did not succeed.</p><p class="western">Pamela bent her head to the side and narrowed her eyes. “Did you sell your data under the counter?”</p><p class="western">“I… no… what do you mean?… what data?”</p><p class="western">“I never told him who my maker was, but he discovered it during his travels.” Eric’s voice was level, his face still blank.</p><p class="western">“I’ve always wondered how was that that beast had showed up at our doorstep just at the right time,” Pamela hissed through gritted teeth.</p><p class="western">“Now, you can choose to die quickly or to live for a very uncomfortable long time,” Eric steepled his hands against his mouth and waited.</p><p class="western">The prisoner’s struggle with his chains stopped and his arms hugged his chest. “Felipe is my king… I was in no position to withhold anything from him… you know I’m loyal and how he—”</p><p class="western">“Fast. Slow. Up to you.” Eric’s voice large in the little room. “Where do you keep the information you collected? Disks, passwords, everything. I’ll check and if it’s not correct…”</p><p class="western">“You cannot do that. It’s stealing directly from the king.”</p><p class="western">Eric smiled for the first time, but it was just a hint.</p><p class="western">“He will look for me,” the prisoner resumed his struggle to find a better position than the one he was currently in, stretched between chains. “I have to report to him every week… month… even if nothing comes up. He will be seeking for me, it’s a matter of time.”</p><p class="western">Eric smiled some more. But it was just a frown on his lips.</p><p class="western">“Felipe wanted to get rid of you. Do not think that Freyda would help you against him now.”</p><p class="western">His tentative smile bloomed into a disgusted wince. The being in front of him had not been an honourable individual in none of his two lives, as human and as vampire. He had always hidden behind something or someone, probably because there was nothing valuable inside of him to stand for. Eric was displeased to find such a poor object of hatred.</p><p class="western">Of all the tortures Eric had imagined to treat his prisoner with there was none he wanted to carry on personally. He did not feel any willingness to even choose any particular abuse to inflict on him at that very moment.</p><p class="western">“Pam, charge someone to check the info he will be volunteering,” Eric stood up and kissed Pamela’s forehead tenderly. “Willingly or not.”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">***</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">More than two weeks had passed by without Eric thinking of his prisoner. He had come back to New Orleans, and to his task of building a government to reassemble what two inept regents had left of the vampire world of two once rich countries.</p><p class="western">The most urgent problem to address was finding people, possibly the right ones, to mould into warriors and administrators. His closer collaborators had to be vampires, as top figures in any category of the administration. But for the remaining positions, Eric did not shun the idea of associating with daemons or valuable humans, while weres would be considered only as external partners, security or low level helpers.</p><p class="western">The buzz of his phone took some time to enter his mind’s awareness as he was sifting through the papers in front of him.</p><p class="western">“Northman is busy,” Karin answered without watching the screen to know the caller, “be quick.”</p><p class="western">“Tell our maker that all the material found at Compton’s, in a few of his bank’s safes and at his lawyer’s firm are interesting and valuable,” Pamela said cheerfully. “And, if he has still any use for that jerk, I left him alive. More or less.”</p><p class="western">Karin’s mood seemed to improve slightly and she asked how long was it necessary to wait to restore Compton’s health.</p><p class="western">“If properly fed, four/five days for his general condition. If you intended something more specific: a few months to grow back his feet. Which are not necessary for the use of the worm, right?”</p><p class="western">“I can’t believe you had to cut his feet to spur his <em>volunteering</em>,” Eric interjected lifting his gaze from the desk to Karin, who held the phone at arm’s length.</p><p class="western">“That was for my pleasure,” Pamela replied. “Compton gave away all his little secrets in a couple of days. But it took some time to check and confirm everything.”</p><p class="western">Eric nodded to Karin and went back to browse among the pile of documents on the desk.</p><p class="western">“Feed him copiously and let him regain some… well-being,” Karin closed the communication and watched his maker who studiously fussed about some papers.</p><p class="western">“Eric,” she started after a while, “would you mind to tell me what I’m supposed to do with Compton?”</p><p class="western">He leant on the chair’s backrest and closed his eyes. “Compton shouldn’t have been turned. But the same can be said of his maker.” He paused as if pained to have to say what he had in mind. “The only reason I didn’t kill him was… Sookie. Now I have no reason not to render a service to my kind and cease his useless life. His call to Ocella was the nail in his coffin.”</p><p class="western">Karin’s features hardened hearing the name of his maker’s maker. The hatred she had always felt at that sound had not completely dissolved after his death.</p><p class="western">“For the loss of my freedom he has paid in kind: he has just lost it forever,” Eric continued. “For the loss of a chance with my first wife, I don’t know what more to ask of him.”</p><p class="western">“I will make him pray to die, maker. And if he did know what calling Ocella could have done to you, I think that some of Ocella’s <em>lessons</em> can be bestowed on him.”</p><p class="western">Eric narrowed his eyes taking in her words.</p><p class="western">“Should I refrain? Pamela told me that he raped Sookie.”</p><p class="western">Eric nodded.</p><p class="western">“I’m not beyond filthy and pervert if it serves to teach that worm something about respect and justice.” Karin’s gaze was cold and distant.</p><p class="western">Eric reached out and, taking her hand in his, kissed it lightly. “I won’t stop you this time. Never again.” Then he smiled mischievously. “Just, it’s a waste of time, given that he won’t be able to apply anything he learns to his life.”</p><p class="western">“I’ll be satisfied knowing he will die having a deeper knowledge than that he led his life with,” she said. “But I’ll make the last part of his life a little longer than he deserves just to let him appreciate his new understanding of honour. A concept he never truly grasped.”</p><p class="western">“Just don’t lose too many nights. He’s not worth your time, child,” he said letting go of her hand. “And… I’d like to see him once before you kill him. Only to see if he has really learned something.”</p><p class="western">Karin smiled, sat in front of him and took a folder from the pile of documents on the desk. “Now, show me whom you’d like to interview next nights.”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western"> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0016"><h2>16. Chapter 16</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="western"> </p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">Kingship: to earn a bad reputation by good deeds.</p><p class="western">(<em>Excerpt from The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, </em></p><p class="western"><em>book 7, chapter 36</em>)</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">Northman could have never imagined that the job he had acquired with a kingdom would have absorbed his entire life for the first ten years of reign. But that was what happened when a statesman really embraced his country and tried to improve and enrich it.</p><p class="western">During the first two years the vampire community in both his states had been in disarray and the underground resistance against Felipe’s rule had continued under the Northman’s guide. The new king had to curb that untidy opposition with a firm hand and this won him the moniker of <em>the Hammer. </em>And to tell the truth, Northman did enjoy to get dirty from time to time, and thus release the pent up anger and deep dissatisfaction that had followed him since the Oklahoma debacle.</p><p class="western">Besides, vampires’ traditions and rules were soaked in violence and personal achievements reached through it. Therefore the new king benefited directly from the outlet the fighting provided and the message of power it stated to his community. It was a time of clean sweep and reconnaissance behind enemy lines, unfolding the net of Nevada’s spies and his underground attempts to sabotage the economy of his lost countries.</p><p class="western">At the same time, the actions taken allowed Northman to measure up some of his collaborators, allies and would-be friends. And to build his inner circle of advisers and partners. This last task, so fundamental for the newborn crown, proved to be the most hard and long to accomplish.</p><p class="western">Northman’s first choices, almost forced given the circumstances he found himself after his claim had been sanctioned by the clans’ Council, had been to appoint his younger child as Regent of Arkansas and his older as his second in command. His following move had been calling in Cataliades, his lawyer since Sophie-Anne’s times, and inform him of his intention to employ daemons in his administration in a more extended and direct way.</p><p class="western">“What exactly do you have in mind, his majesty?” Cataliades repositioned himself on the armchair and watched closely the vampire and the study. The late queen’s residence had acquired a less flashy tone. Gone heavy curtains and golden passementerie, the large halls and rich rooms had let in all shades of green, punctuated by some of the rowdy rugs of the past and few evocative paintings. The king’s personal study appeared even more conservative. The hues and warmth of leather and wood mingled with natural wool rugs and design lighting fixtures.</p><p class="western">“My name has not changed, Cataliades,” Eric sighed. It was the first time since becoming king that the daemon had joined him at the palace. And the lawyer studied his new client. Eric smiled, but it was only a mental expression.</p><p class="western">“Titles have a meaning and show respect to the entire country which you represent.”</p><p class="western">“I already know I have your respect,” Eric gazed at the daemon, “and you have mine. Otherwise wouldn’t be here.”</p><p class="western">The daemon bowed slightly and waited.</p><p class="western">“You will be my lawyer, as in the past, if you agree,” the vampire started. “Yet, I need to fill some vacancies in my retinue on a stable and exclusive basis. People who respond directly to me or my second; a general clerk, some accountants, financial and fiscal experts, some political advisors. Maybe even a trait d’union between the kingdom and some other supernatural entities we have regular business with.”</p><p class="western">“Is there shortage of vampires?” the lawyer asked amazed, and immediately regretted it.</p><p class="western">“Never figured out you had sense of humour,” Eric flashed him a cold gaze and growled.</p><p class="western">Cataliades froze and felt the guttural sound directly in his bones. “I beg your pardon, it was just—”</p><p class="western">The vampire smiled unfeelingly. The daemon had always shown an obsequious behaviour without being servile. Though, it turned out as a challenging posture.</p><p class="western">“—a joke. Excuse my levity,” the daemon swallowed and lowered his eyes.</p><p class="western">Eric nodded accepting the gesture of pretended submission. He liked daemons’ tricky ways. They reminded him to be vigilant. “I intend to… diversify my <em>humanoid</em> resources, and daemons have always cooperated with us. Besides, you are completely unknown to humans and disguise perfectly.”</p><p class="western">“However, this would be a first. No vampire hired us on an exclusive trade, as far as I know.”</p><p class="western">“Even better, then.” Eric smiled. “What is more appealing is the fact that daemons never seem to have warred if not among themselves. All supernaturals acknowledge your superior skills in some fields, like law and negotiations, and never argued against you. Not overtly, at least. So, would you oblige me?”</p><p class="western">“It would be a honour,” Cataliades replied.</p><p class="western">“I’ll mail you a list of what I’m looking for,” Eric said and considered the matter settled. He foresaw a certain pleasure in his future dealings.</p><p class="western">In the following years several daemons joined his court and some proved very loyal and valuable, while Cataliades confirmed his position as preferred law firm in both supernatural and human businesses.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">***</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">Kingship had come to Eric more like a burden and a necessity than a privilege, but he turned it into an opportunity and a challenge.</p><p class="western">In fact, as the American Vampire League exhausted the little bit of effectiveness it had garnered at its beginning, because of a few scandals that overwhelmed its most prominent leaders, vampires lost the moderate protection against racism they had under the League’s wings and, what was more, against the soaring power of the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs, which encompassed both vampires and weres legislation.</p><p class="western">The human administration, because of fears solicitous associations for the defence of humans safety expressed in well publicised statements after some bloodsheds (of which a few weres were found responsible for), tightened the rules for the supernaturals’ registry office. Consequently, every vampire or were had to be listed in federal recordings and comply to a series of strict regulations concerning their activities.</p><p class="western">Vampires had to disclose how often they fed and where/how they did it, producing the signed consent form from donors if they did not drink synthetic blood (of which they had to show receipts of payment of the denounced amount). Weres had to report their monthly runnings and give all information as to where and how they took place, as well as declare all their periodic or impromptu huntings and the number of killed animals.</p><p class="western">The situation degenerated in a few years.</p><p class="western">It did not help the fact that weres had not an organised political hierarchy to bridle them, and the little power a pack could master did not extend beyond local areas. These circumstances, indeed, prevented to show a united front of vampires and weres, and the answer to the mounting (and well organised) fear (bordering on panic and terror) of the defenceless human population was patchy, ineffective and contradictory.</p><p class="western">The immediate reaction of both communities, vampire and were alike, was to close in on themselves and defend their respective position, more often than not accusing each other of instigate humans against the other.</p><p class="western">Some human associations welcomed the opportunity to defend another minority, therefore it was created the Vampire’s Day (after Halloween but before Christmas) and a charity marathon to fund the defence of our <em>feeding-impaired brothers and sisters</em> (yearly subscription to the magazine <em>Vamp</em>included with the donation of fifty dollars). Weres, for their part, found hospitality in a series of National Geographic sponsored wildlife documentaries called <em>Not so wild</em> (subtitle <em>A day in a shifter’s life</em>) featuring small canids and felines, but ignoring completely larger mammals or less domesticated fauna.</p><p class="western">Before long the north American countries appeared to be less and less hospitable for the supernaturals, competing with continents like Africa or Asia, where both vampires and weres were killed on sight (it was not a crime) or publicly executed.</p><p class="western">Louisiana and Arkansas, under the patronage of well known businessvamp Eric Northman (who owned many businesses which employed thousands of employees of whom a significative percentage were weres), bargained a general exemption from the registration requirement for those vampires and weres who had a clean criminal record and lodged security (ten thousand dollars per capita with a max of fifty thousand per household for weres, and a hundred thousand dollars each for vampires).</p><p class="western">The crown paid huge amounts to the BSA but the higher income generated by all the vampires, and vampire owned companies, who moved to the Great Louisiana (as was called Northman’s kingdom) in the next few years since the new legislation came into force, allowed the king to replenish the crown’s coffers, and thus implement the projects of building an extended economical system in vampires’ hands.</p><p class="western">In a few years the states of Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Alabama followed suit, even if their exemptions were not as lenient as that of Great Louisiana. Their consolidated vampire population, however, grew considerably, shifting the political weight in vampire governance to the southern states.</p><p class="western">It was then, some five years since Eric’s ascent to the throne, that the queen of Alabama proposed.</p><p class="western">Their kingdoms had already developed a healthy and sympathetic economical relationship, following the Indianola’s Negotiations. Those were the requests Texas, Mississippi, Indiana and Alabama had made as pay off for their help in the takeover. Economical advantages and status of privileged partners in many fields, strong cooperation in political choices at Clan and inter-Clans’ level matters (focusing on security, intelligence and armies) and more specific and detailed partnerships with each of them to be fixed in following inter-countries covenants.</p><p class="western">Great Louisiana and Alabama, specifically, had signed some important joint ventures in the aerospace industries and medical research funding which, given the amount of money involved, had made it to the national news.</p><p class="western">And now the queen offered to up the stakes and commit for a stricter and longer alliance.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">***</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">Rehema’s slender body appeared at the top of the stairs as soon as the private jet’s door opened and her guards stepped aside. She descended briskly and stopped as her gaze fell on Eric. He leaned on a red Corvette polished front-end and smirked.</p><p class="western">It was years they had met regularly to take care of their business interests and, unhurriedly, they had increased their appointments and spent together some of their free time. They had compatible tastes in many areas: music, ballet, theatre exhibitions; and activities: hunting, sparring, politics. They embraced the same philosophy of life. In time, they had shared some pieces of their pasts, and had ended up closer and stronger. Sometimes it had been awkward, given their positions, but slowly they had learned to trust each other and had lowered their shields. A little at a time. It had been slow and, sometimes, painful. It was a work in progress no one knew where it could get to. Surely ahead, though.</p><p class="western">“Wipe that look off your face,” the black vampiress told Eric as she approached him. Yet her wide smile betrayed her amusement. “Your last toy?” She pointed to the flashy car.</p><p class="western">“Pam gave it to me two months ago and I hadn’t yet time to try it,” Eric opened the passenger’s door and waved his hand inviting her inside. “Would you join me for a ride?”</p><p class="western">“Only if I can drive it too!”</p><p class="western">“Sure, after I’ve chewed up a few thousand kilometres,” his deep voice carried a cheerful tone. “It’s a pleasure to see you again, Rehema,” Eric added before closing her door.</p><p class="western">It was a warm night without clouds and, for once, the wetness of the air was not annoying. Eric drove fast, breaking all the speed limits and a few rights of way, enjoying the power the car’s engine released loudly into the night’s stillness. Rehema’s presence at his side did not invade his awareness and he let himself relish the moment of freedom.</p><p class="western">It was so long since he had tasted his life so untroubled that he failed to notice what flavour it had. Maybe its most distinctive essence was the absence. The vacancy of any feeling, of any aftertaste or perfume. It was life without preservatives or added aroma, just the sensation of being there. And, for the moment, he appreciated that perception of himself outside everything.</p><p class="western">He took the longest route to arrive to his new house, a large modern mansion situated in an extended patch of trees and grass in a secluded area between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. Dark greens the moonlight turned silver and earth smells the generous wall windows let in. That was as rustic as he could go. He lived there with his inner circle of collaborators, while the security personnel and the servants occupied a few guest houses within the surrounding park.</p><p class="western">Eric turned off the engine when the garage door closed and a guard gave him a nod. He turned toward Rehema and smiled mildly. “I think we can do it. But before going on I’d like to know what do you expect from this union.”</p><p class="western">“I like you, Eric,” her firm and delicate voice filled the interior of the car as a placid tune. “I really like you, and I trust you. Which is far more than I can say of the majority of people I spend my time with.”</p><p class="western">Eric nodded.</p><p class="western">“I also respect you and share the same idea of life you have,” she added after a while. “I expect to walk part of my life with you, seeking your advice and your company. I expect you to be sincere with me in any circumstance and to have your back. I’d like to get to know more of you and to learn from you. But I’m not a young lady, nor a naive one. I’m more than four hundred fifty years old and I have had my share of ugliness and hardship. I know what it means to be alone, really utterly alone.” She paused. “I think you know it, too.”</p><p class="western">Eric’s nod was light, almost imperceptible.</p><p class="western">“It means you know your strength and don’t tell yourself lies. Or, at least, only those necessary to go ahead.” Rehema’s eyes caressed Eric’s face with tenderness. “I’m not in love with you, as you aren’t either. And I don’t love you in a romantic way, but I do love you deeply. As a being who has met another being of her kind. You’re one of my kind, and I don’t mean vampire. I will protect you and will fight for you with my life. But this you already know, because I don’t need to marry you to stand by you.”</p><p class="western">A smile bloomed in his face and his hand stroked gently her cheek. “Yes,” said Eric simply.</p><p class="western">“If you think you can reciprocate, I’m interested and will commit fully to this journey,” Rehema continued. “I promise you I’ll be at you side, always. And to kick you shamelessly if you lose your path or forget yourself.”</p><p class="western">Eric watched her perfect face, her flawless skin, then the way her lips’ corners twitched lightly and her eyes glinted with cheer.</p><p class="western">“Our marriage will upset and scare more than one,” Eric said finally.</p><p class="western">“They already fear. Our businesses and our friendship have not gone unnoticed.”</p><p class="western">“I will never lie to you.”</p><p class="western">“Oh, now, you’ve just started!” Rehema chirped uncharacteristically. “You will lie, for sure. But I know you won’t do that to hurt or harm me.”</p><p class="western">“Why would I do so?” Eric asked pretending to be surprised and offended.</p><p class="western">“Oh my, ’cause you’re an overbearing jerk full of yourself who thinks to know what’s best for everybody!”</p><p class="western">“That’s unfair! And coming from you, not less!”</p><p class="western">They both laughed.</p><p class="western">“Have you already talked to Pam and Karin?” asked Rehema as their laugh subsided.</p><p class="western">“They are waiting for us inside. Will try to stop you doing a very stupid mistake!” Eric reached out to open the door, then turned to the vampiress and said: “I truly wish you to find a person who loves you totally, as you deserve to be loved. Not less.”</p><p class="western">“I wish the same for you, Eric. And that day I’ll stand by you and prevent you to flee away.”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">***</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">Following the strict legislation implemented by the human administration and given the few states which allowed derogations, both supernatural communities that had opted to reveal themselves just stopped to do so. Official spokespersons of vampires and weres declared that their population had completely come out or emigrated to other countries.</p><p class="western">Therefore, the American Kingdoms had to organise their kind at three different levels: those who had come out during the first years since the Great Reveal (less than thirty percent of the total, internal figures stated), those who had chosen not to come out and those who had rethought their coming out and had gone back to anonymity. This last step was easily achieved with money to corrupt the records (replacing pictures and altering fingerprints was usually enough) or moving to another state. Or both. The change in the population being a constant of the economic turnovers each country experienced, no much attention was dedicated to the migration flows by the human authorities.</p><p class="western">That was till the time some figures did not match by a significative percentage and some vampires decided to investigate the matter, unfolding a disconcerting truth.</p><p class="western">Officially, it transpired during the Amun clan’s summit of 2031, under Indiana’s presidency. The census general clerk, in his report spanning three years of recording, highlighted a disturbing discrepancy between the migrations’ requests of each kingdom and the effective reality of them as checked by the tithes collection in the declared country of destination.</p><p class="western">The meeting was held in a gated community in northern Minnesota, and only administrative cadres attended the event (<em>Migration flows and Revenue: who wins, who loses</em>).</p><p class="western">“All very interesting, indeed, General Clerk,” boomed a bored Nikomachos Latsis, half-daemon, Great Louisiana’s secretary. “Would you mind to expand it further?”</p><p class="western">The vampire visibly winced and addressed the daemon with pungency. “Figures speak clearly, Secretary. I’ve already sent the relevant files to everybody’s mail, if you care to read it.”</p><p class="western">Latsis was used to vampires haughtiness since he had become Northman’s personal assistant seven years earlier, and then secretary: a daemon had never occupied such a position of power in the vampire echelon. He enjoyed to rub it in their faces. “Most gracious of you, General Clerk. What I asked is if any more attention had been payed to that significative percentage, eleven point five if I recall right, of vampires who did not show up in the country they elected to migrate. It appeared that seven per cent of those individuals had already moved and changed their business and, allowed for an expected percentage of people who reconsidered, say one/one and a half, we have to account for at least two per cent of disappearance from our ledgers.”</p><p class="western">“Are you implying that your king does not want to pay his half of the due tithes to the country left by the percentage of vampires who… reconsider their move?”</p><p class="western">“Obviously. If my kingdom does not collect tithes from a disappeared vampire, I won’t advice my king to waste his money.” Latsis waved a hand over his tablet to change file, then continued. “Indeed, I just wanted to point out that we have a significative percentage of our subjects who… evade taxation in both countries and, so it seems, disappear altogether from our records. Not reappearing in other continents, either.”</p><p class="western">“Secretary,” the general clerk spat the term with ill-concealed snootiness, “a certain percentage of <em>disappearance</em> is usual and tolerable.”</p><p class="western">“My conservative estimate accounts for more than two hundred fifty vampires per year in 2029. Only in Great Louisiana. To that figure we add eighty-odd vampires who disappeared leaving their jobs or business without prior notice,” the daemon waved again his hand and paused, lifting his gaze to encompass all the twelve vampire at the table. “I took the liberty to check missing humans for the same year, who were three hundred twenty six, and missing weres/shifters, amounting to fifty eight individuals.”</p><p class="western">“What is your point?” snapped the general clerk.</p><p class="western">“With all due considerations, proportions and the tolerance you referred to, there is a disconcerting draining of our subjects. Either we have to monitor our population more closely or—”</p><p class="western">“Or…?” asked an unusually plump vampiress with piercing green eyes and two rather childish buns placed over her ears. Minnesota’s team, reckoned Latsis who smiled at her.</p><p class="western">“—we have to consider investigating deeper into some rumours. Vampire trafficking for blood, organs, slavery or… research. Unauthorised and unrecorded medical research.”</p><p class="western">“Urban legends,” countered the general clerk.</p><p class="western">“May I remind you that I am stuff of urban legend, too?” quipped the daemon showing his pointy teeth.</p><p class="western">“I suppose you have already ran into something, right?” the Minnesotan vampiress asked.</p><p class="western">“We are investigating, miss,” Latsis nodded emphatically and added: “My king, along with Mississippi, Alabama and Texas, did find something disturbing in our countries. I’ve already sent a warning to the clan presidency and I think the President is sending a formal warning to all clans.”</p><p class="western">“What exactly did you find, Secretary?” a wary voice asked.</p><p class="western">“Two vampires, in advanced state of decomposition, let’s say fifteen/eighteen hours from their death. Completely drained and with some organs missing: heart, kidneys, bladder, prostate. Some fingers and penises not yet fully regrown back.”</p><p class="western">White vampires were usually more paler after their turning, but a few ones around the table managed to show a lighter shade of white at the daemon’s account.</p><p class="western">A year and a half later, the account given by Great Louisiana’s secretary appeared little thing in comparison to the general picture the investigators finally drew. The evidence gathered pointed to a couple of federal agencies whose mission was to study vampires and weres to find ways to neutralise the possible threat they could pose to humans. Along with this goal, a branch called <em>Labs</em> studied the physiology of supernatural creatures to extract any possible knowledge to benefit humans through pharmaceutical industries.</p><p class="western">Hundreds of vampires and weres had given their lives to human science when the horrid truth became common knowledge among the higher echelons of the vampire community. A good number of packmasters, presented with the findings of the investigation, gave their support to the plan to counteract.</p><p class="western">It was the first time in vampire history, at least that reported in traditional lore, that several clans cooperated for the realisation of a common goal. It took more or less a decade to see some results and five more years to put a definite end to humans’ secret war.</p><p class="western">The course of action devised was to infiltrate those two agencies at higher levels and dismantle their facilities keeping the structures active but ineffective. The danger, well known to vampires, was that those who moved, and basically benefited from, those agencies’ activities would transfer their operations to other entities.</p><p class="western">To avoid this scenario the vampires who penetrated those agencies were allowed to do what necessary. Glamouring, sudden death by stroke or heart attack, untimely retirements, not to mention the continuous dangers of all means of transport and those lurking at home (stairs and bathrooms at the forefront). The last resource was turning the unfortunate stubborn human who resisted death and cooperation by glamouring. Sometimes, however, turning was a first choice if the human showed too positive qualities used in the wrong way.</p><p class="western">Therefore vampires numbers increased exponentially, and so their power.</p><p class="western">All sectors of the civil society, both private and public, were slowly infiltrated or coopted at their highest levels, and human offensive against the supernaturals ceased altogether.</p><p class="western">Several associations which had promoted the acceptance of vampires and weres (humans never truly grasped the difference between weres and shapeshifters as the latter were smart enough not to divulge too much about their true nature) celebrated every little step of this long journey and, by the half of the twenty-first century, succeeded in changing the Universal Declaration on Human Rights into the Universal Declaration of Life Rights, encompassing all sentient beings and forcing all constitutions and laws to abide by it.</p><p class="western">Slowly, Europe and Asia followed the north American countries and, as the new status quo became an accomplished fact, no one ever talked any more about supernatural creatures. Even some gods had accepted them in their churches and several clergymen had started night shifts to welcome vampires into their fold.</p><p class="western">Indeed, most humans never knew of this secret war and the small number of vampires they came to know were just the tip of the iceberg. Most of them, in fact, came back to the night they had always ruled over unrivalled.</p><p class="western"> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0017"><h2>17. Chapter 17</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western">Sookie sat in the high wooden bed situated in the middle of the large room that was her resting place for the night of the ceremony. Thrown over the footboard, a white blanket decorated with an intricate green lacework reminded her of grandmothers’ hobbies. Not hers, though. And it surely was a magic product, she considered after. She lowered her gaze and felt soft rugs under her feet. It was a warmness that did not reach her belly.</p>
<p class="western">A thoughtful mood had enveloped her after the brief exchange with Aengus. She tried to seize the fear that had taken hold of her and a barrage of thoughts, mostly fleeting and incomplete, flooded her consciousness.</p>
<p class="western">It was already more than five years that she lived and breathed the fae way, learning a little bit more every day and she felt slightly, but firmly, pushed to several directions all at once. Surely her family had given her all the instruments to foster her fae education, all the means to live comfortably and all the time she needed to learn at her leisure. And she had spent that time as a committed pupil on scholarship, showing dedication and results.</p>
<p class="western">But Sookie had not failed to notice that everybody had a role and a use in the fae society. Niall was the prince and had formal and less formal businesses to attend; Dillon was the Delegate to the Triumvirate; Dermot acted as a special envoy to the other fae reigns; Aengus travelled continuously to other dimensions on assignments. Even those whom she regularly had interactions with were always engaged in works of different types. Aine was a sort of guide and guardian to her, supplying actual lessons in fae language and history. Rhiannon and Chadwick were her teachers and tutors in their field of expertise, and Sookie knew they had other pupils and engagements to attend.</p>
<p class="western">Everybody around her did their share of work, therefore it was sensible to expect that sooner or later some kind of requests would have landed at her door. And now that she was a full-fledged fairy (something that before she did not know it could ever happen), she felt even more obliged to repay her community with her services. Furthermore, it was the first time in her life she was accepted and welcomed the way she was, without feeling any less for her human heritage or her dae gift. On the contrary, those traits were seen as a plus, even as Sookie was unsure if that wide acceptance were mainly due to her status of Brigant’s scion or the circumstance that her fae spark were of remarkable magnitude.</p>
<p class="western">As for Aengus, she did not know what to make of his invitation to enter his mind. Or of her reluctance to do so. Between them things had settled in a very comfortable and convenient way, to the satisfaction of both. They had a varied and intense sexual exchange when Aengus was in Faery and no commitment of any kind was agreed for when they were apart. Sookie had to recognise that since bedding her cousin no other fae had been willing to come forward, and she had not pursued anyone, limiting her bed partners to the occasional encounters during her trips out of Faery. It had been a discovery of exotic tastes, from daemons to daemons interbreed with humans or fae, to some weres and witches or other crossed breed she was not even aware of. Now that she considered her sexual life it was surprising that she had never had any intimate encounter with plain humans. So much for her earlier quest for normality in the human world.</p>
<p class="western">Sookie smiled at the baffled realisation that her standard for <em>normal</em> had greatly expanded its limits. She would not have flinched at any show of perks, talents, physical peculiarities or magic epiphanies. That was her world now, and she basked in it shamelessly.</p>
<p class="western">Aengus was a riddle she would solve another time, she thought standing up and heading to the bathroom. She was stopped in her tracks by two knocks at the door. She pushed her mind out, cautiously handling a poker from the rack at the fireplace side: three fairies, apparently harmless and in very good mood. Sookie opened the door and watched two males and a female smiling and trying to get her attention.</p>
<p class="western">“Fae,” one of the males said bowing to Sookie. “May I wish you good night the fairy way?” He was very tall, broad shoulders, long legs, a perfect face framed by blond hair.</p>
<p class="western">“Fae,” said the other male, “my good night infusion will relax and lull you to a satisfied rest.” He was sturdy built with long, reddish hair and wore only a pair of loose fitting trousers.</p>
<p class="western">The female fairy was shorter than Sookie, long straight dark hair and slim build, her thoughts were chasing one another and her demeanour was curious rather than lustful. Aengus was in her mind but Sookie could not see well through the coiling thread of fleeting images she got from her.</p>
<p class="western">“Fae,” whispered gently the female fairy, “come to me.” The face of his cousin loomed large and clear in her mind, and Sookie felt a tinge of jealousy.</p>
<p class="western">“Come to me,” replied Sookie and offered her a hand, leading the fairy inside her bedroom. “Good night, gentlemen.”</p>
<p class="western">Sookie offered a glass of wine to her guest and caressed her mind softly. “What are you supposed to do here?”</p>
<p class="western">“What you want, fae.” The brunette’s thinking was still in a haphazard fashion and Sookie could not get a hold of her leading line of thoughts. The fairy was nervous and uneasy.</p>
<p class="western">“I was about to have a bath, would you join me?”</p>
<p class="western">“My pleasure, fae.”</p>
<p class="western">Sookie led the way to the bathroom. It was made of polished stones and weird mirrors, the kind that made you think someone was behind them. She undressed, following her guest’s gestures and slightly pushing her confused thoughts behind. Sookie washed the fairy and massaged her neck and shoulders. Soothing and subduing her anxious feelings along the way. She had never met the fairy before. “Do you like me?” They were in a large, stone bathtub that kept the water hot and recycled. A light sandal fragrance wafting out from the water with every move.</p>
<p class="western">“You are very beautiful, fae.” The fairy was warming under Sookie’s hands and her thoughts were calming down. “And your hands are sweet.”</p>
<p class="western">“You do like women, then.”</p>
<p class="western">“Mmm, yes.”</p>
<p class="western">“And men?” Sookie used the fae term to identify only male fairies.</p>
<p class="western">“They are necessary.”</p>
<p class="western">“Why?”</p>
<p class="western">“To have children!” The fairy giggled but did not open her eyes. “We are a dwindling race, we need children.”</p>
<p class="western">“Do you want children, then?”</p>
<p class="western">“It’s a duty. For every fae.” Sookie recalled a harsh rebuke of Niall towards Claude who did not want to bed women, and wondered if Claude’s invitation to have sex with him could have been a way to please (and mislead) his grandfather.</p>
<p class="western">“Oh, so you bed men just to have children…” The fairy’s thoughts confirmed this assumption and the telepath checked cautiously to see images of recent lovers, feeling a sense of relief as Aengus was not there.</p>
<p class="western">“Mmm, yes, but it’s better not to tell them, they’re so touchy on the subject.”</p>
<p class="western">Sookie delved a little deeper and another image of Aengus, cold, distant and very dressed, mouthed the words <em>Come to me</em>. She stilled and then exhaled slowly.</p>
<p class="western">“Something’s wrong?” asked the fairy turning to Sookie.</p>
<p class="western">“No.” She smiled and offered: “I’ve never been with a woman. Tell me what you like…”</p>
<p class="western">The fairy’s sweet features turned into a sensual pose and she purred: “I’ll show you.” The brunette reached out and cupped Sookie’s breasts.</p>
<p class="western">Sookie reciprocated and dug some more into the other’s mind. Aengus’ presence was pervasive at that level, and the fairy’s composure faltered under the profound touch of Sookie’s mind. The telepath’s prodding was light but the level she had reached was very deep and she was deciding to leave her mind when another image of Aengus appeared, large and neat.</p>
<p class="western">
  <em>Come to me, Sookie, now.</em>
</p>
<p class="western">The telepath recoiled as if she had heard the words aloud. Water spilled on to the floor as she stood up, shaking.</p>
<p class="western">“Sorry, have I done something to… offend you?”</p>
<p class="western">Sookie breathed hardly and could not think of anything sensible to tell the woman. “No, really. It’s me. Maybe I’m not in the mood. I’m sorry.”</p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western">***</p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western">The telepath went down to the room Aengus teleported her before, wrapped in a bathrobe and in a fuming mood.</p>
<p class="western">“Magnificent!” Aengus, leaning on the mantel and drinking the fae version of alcohol, a dark thick liquor with a sour-sweet aftertaste, spoke softly. “You’ve been magnificent, fae!” He repeated with his incongruous cold voice.</p>
<p class="western">“What have you been up to?” Sookie did not even try to hide her words’ harsh tone, speaking in English as she was used when upset with him.</p>
<p class="western">Aengus ignored her attitude and sipped the liquor. “You went through the ceremony with an impeccable frame of mind. You made the Brigant house very proud, today.”</p>
<p class="western">Sookie lost all her anger at Aengus’ words. He had never praised her so blatantly and highly. She was baffled.</p>
<p class="western">“And your mind,” he added almost with a streak of despondency, “your mind is strong, incredibly strong… far more than your heart.”</p>
<p class="western">“What… what does it mean?” Sookie was now in front of him and took a sip from his glass.</p>
<p class="western">“You are a beautifully powerful fae… you will learn to fortify your heart too.”</p>
<p class="western">Sookie did not know what to make of those words, and preferred not to face possible implications. “What did you do with that girl?”</p>
<p class="western">“Iana?” Aengus pretended to gloss over the deed. “I only glamoured her…”</p>
<p class="western">“Glamour? It was well past the level of glamour, and it was frightening for her.” Sookie retorted right away, then paused. “I’ve always heard that fae glamour was light and short-lived, but what I sensed was deeper and thicker than any real glamour I’ve ever seen. Vampire glamour I mean.”</p>
<p class="western">Aengus smiled. “Oh, really?” He had an impish look about him. “Would you like to learn it?”</p>
<p class="western">“I can already push thoughts into minds,” she snapped hastily, “but I’m also a decent fae and don’t go meddling with people.”</p>
<p class="western">“And that’s good. You have to do it only when extremely necessary.”</p>
<p class="western">Sookie lifted an eyebrow and was quiet. After a long thick pause she spoke: “Ah, ah, Rhiannon did not tell you much about our… achievements.”</p>
<p class="western">“She didn’t need to. I’d rather see for myself anything about you.”</p>
<p class="western">“…so, that was a test.” Sookie stated flatly, somehow relieved. “And do I get a reward for my good marks?”</p>
<p class="western">“Were you thinking of something specific, fae?” Aengus put his hands on her hips and pulled her to him.</p>
<p class="western">“You sent me a really poor choice to seduce me, earlier.” Sookie whispered to his ear. “Maybe you can remedy the below par performance of your minions.”</p>
<p class="western">“It’s right. A true fae always asks something for her good deeds.” Aengus’ hands were kneading her rear cheeks and one finger massaged gently her anus. “The least you deserve is a sincere apology for my unfortunate picking and the certainty of my unfaltering attention from now on.”</p>
<p class="western">Consequently, Aengus paid great attention in pleasuring the new fae, visiting every orifice of her body and forgetting his misgivings for the future choices his lovely cousin might make.</p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western">***</p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western">It was midday and Sookie was still in bed, her cousin still sleeping at her side. Aengus’ lovemaking had been scrupulous and very satisfying, and Sookie had responded in kind, both leaving their masks on the nightstand. That night, for the second time in many years, her memory had tricked her and an image of a very tall, very blond and very amorous vampire had intruded her awareness and let her breathless. Her reaction had been swift and automatic, though, without waiting for a specific command from her brain: she had dampened down the inappropriate thought and buried it below a thick cover of things to do.</p>
<p class="western">Now, however, was also the day after her Ceremony and she did not know what to expect. Not really asleep, but not yet awake, Sookie’s thoughts were too direct and dangerous. She forced herself to focus on the mental routine of training her mind: <em>unfolding</em>, <em>freeing</em> and <em>combing</em>.</p>
<p class="western">A sudden pop exploded in the bedroom and Niall appeared at the foot of her bed. Sookie’s neck snapped in that direction and her gaze was not friendly nor sympathetic. It was a very impolite behaviour to appear unannounced directly in one’s presence, and even more rude surprising one in a state of sleep. In fact, it was good fae manners to teleport in a sheltered and private place and then reach the destination by foot, revealing themselves by a knock at the door or the like.</p>
<p class="western">“Niall.” Aengus hissed with unadulterated disdain.</p>
<p class="western">Sookie sat on the bed covering her breasts and watched coldly as Aengus stood up in his perfect nakedness and approached the older fairy with a determined gait. “Wait outside.” All pretence of hierarchical respect totally absent.</p>
<p class="western">Niall complied, exiting the room on foot, this way bending to his grand-child’s show of power.</p>
<p class="western">The blond fae observed the scene perceiving a sense of helplessness from her great grandfather’s mind, yet not knowing what to make of it. The precarious position her older relative experienced since her arrival to Faery had showed many degrees of descent: from uncertain but temporary, to definitive and hardly distinguished.</p>
<p class="western">Only now, though, Sookie wondered who really was the Brigant house’s leading figure given that the nominal prince had no real power. The thought disturbed her and she got out of the bed shaking it away.</p>
<p class="western">Aengus gave her her robe and said not unkindly: “Take your time getting ready.”</p>
<p class="western">Sookie took a shower, dressed and went to the sitting room where Niall’s mind pulsed uncomfortably.</p>
<p class="western">“I’m sorry, child” said Niall with a sorrow look. “I came to know your name.”</p>
<p class="western">Sookie looked puzzled, then remembered. After the Ceremony of Awakening the fae had to choose the name by which to be called thereafter, Aine had told her.</p>
<p class="western">At that time the telepath had not given much thought to it, and had just gone through a list of names to choose hers along with Rhiannon and Aine. She had thought of an ancestor’s name, but none suited her, then she had browsed through famous fae names, but they sounded outlandish to her ears.</p>
<p class="western">At that point her fae-dae friend had exclaimed: “You’re other than that, young fae. You should choose a name that states your difference, or your multiple descent—”</p>
<p class="western">“Yes,” interjected Sookie, “I feel other, other than what I was, other than whom I had thought to be now, just other.”</p>
<p class="western">Rhiannon smiled, then added: “There’s a dead language, dear to daemons, in which many stories were written, many poems chanted, many philosophies discussed. In that language that word would be <em>alia</em>. Other, different things.”</p>
<p class="western">Sookie watched her great-grandfather intently. He had somehow got older in those years, although his beauty was untouched. It was in his eyes, in his gait, in his demeanour. A sort of tiredness, but not quite that.</p>
<p class="western">“Alia,” she announced, “my name from now on will be Alia.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0018"><h2>18. Chapter 18</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p>When you fish for love, bait with your heart, not your brain.</p>
<p>(<em>Mark Twain,</em>American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer)</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.</p>
<p>(<em>Lao Tzu</em>, Chinese philosopher and writer)</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Latsis was tall and lightly built, with dark complexion and a thin face. His natural state was unperturbed with ruffled hair. He liked his job very much, his employer less enthusiastically. Eric had noticed when his secretary’s appreciation had shifted. When Latsis had seen his king preferring direct, ruthless behaviour instead of the subtlety and deceit he favoured, the daemon had resorted to a quiet opposition.</p>
<p>The king approved of it. Having an acquiescent aide was no use to him. Therefore he had increased his ferocious choices, letting his second be the flexible counterpart. Patiently and not without grace, the daemon had proved to be in his element swerving across the bumpy path and playing his own tune. He was young and promising.</p>
<p>The king was in his study. A crossing between a library and an old men’s club, minus cigars. A waiter had let a pitcher of fresh blood on his desk, and two fingers of whiskey, neat. The latter was Latsis’ mind fertiliser. He could nurse a drink for hours, letting its woody, nutty smell fill his head and the room. But the king’s nose was choosy and allowed his secretary only the blends with most sweet notes. Presently, he had just finished reading his mail. Apparently not many good news. He lifted his gaze and met his secretary’s black eyes. “Latsis, you can practice some of your finesse with these… humans who don’t understand what is better for them.” He let some annoyance colour his tone.</p>
<p>The secretary smiled knowingly. “The Chinese, I guess.”</p>
<p>“You know already, don’t gloat over it,” Northman said dismissively. “It does not suit you.”</p>
<p>“Cannot I rejoice just a little, sir?”</p>
<p>The daemon’s smile widened but he did not push it beyond the king’s patience. This latter was not among his best practised virtues as of lately. And the Chinese, one of the counterparts in a multilateral agreement over a mining concession on Mars, were already doing their best to absorb most of it since two quarters. They kept requiring changes and renegotiating articles stretching the talks beyond everybody’s tolerance. The secretary had suggested a different approach to win the Chinese but the king had pursued his ways. Till now.</p>
<p>“Do what you want, but take home that concession,” Northman said. A pleasant fragrance of caramel wafted from Latsis glass. “If you need, ask Hunter to assist you.”</p>
<p>“With pleasure, sir” Latsis bowed slightly, collected his tablet and waited to be dismissed.</p>
<p>“Yes, it’s all,” the vampire sighed, “on your way out ask the donors service to send one up here in twenty minutes.” Nervousness, or any other kind of physical or psychological tension, burned energy and required more feeding. Or, maybe, it was simply a psychological response to the emotional strain that imbalance caused to his bodily functions. Some humans had chocolate or alcohol as primary reaction to stress, vampires had blood. It eased the pressure and cleared the mind. He had not tasted the synthetic blood in decades now, even if his children had told him it had improved a lot, both in nutritional content and flavour. His diet was mostly donors, or fresh blood bags.</p>
<p>The same applied to sex. It was a tension, both in his body and mind, that did not find the right outlet. He had somehow reverted to his past habits, when his sexuality had been mostly tied to feeding. He fed, then his penis hardened, then he ejaculated into a mouth, a vagina or an anus. Holes were almost interchangeable to him, as were individuals whose hole he was using. And only after his first wife, he found it boring and slightly annoying.</p>
<p>Actually his third wife, Rehema, was his best friend, his favourite business partner, his preferred companion in most activities on a par with his children. He loved her. But she was not his love interest in a romantic way. Although he had to recognise that his expertise in this specific field had been very limited. He had had only one relationship that could be listed in that category, romantic, and it had not ended up very well.</p>
<p>At one point he had hoped that things with Rehema would have turned into romance, but it did not happen. They had never been in love with each other, nor had had any physical attraction to each other. And it was a waste of opportunity, in a way. Rehema was the best candidate he could have fancied: she was a vampire, therefore a long living creature who shared the different perspective that time gave them. Strong, intelligent, pragmatic. It did not hurt that she was probably one of the most beautiful female he had ever met, and had retained part of her humanity as a shield against the ferocity of life.</p>
<p>Rehema shared exactly the same view, considering him her best possible mate but for the lack of proper feelings. And, nonetheless, they had tried to make it work.</p>
<p>Their marriage agreement was the traditional contract vampires had adopted since a few centuries, and required blood exchange and sex once per year during the hundred years of its duration. They had dutiful complied. And it had not worked. Therefore, after a few years they had ceased to have sex altogether. To mix a sincere friendship with sex felt unnecessary and, after a while, somehow forced.</p>
<p>Their union was recognised strong and solid in their community, even if to the human world they were only business partners and good friends. It did not fool anyone, though, that their businesses encompassed several borders, both national and international, and that their friendship was deeper than what web news coverage showed.</p>
<p>Indeed, it was much deeper and various.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>*** </p>
<p> </p>
<p>The day of their twentieth wedding anniversary Eric met his wife in one of the formal sitting rooms at the royal residence in New Orleans. They had never moved together, though both spent some time of the year at the other’s residence. However this one was not a usual anniversary and Rehema was unusually nervous.</p>
<p>“Rehema,” Eric started and she flew into his arms. “Don’t worry, everything will be fine,” he said closing his arms around her back.</p>
<p>“Yes, I know,” she said, her voice thin. “Just repeat it some more times, please.”</p>
<p>“I checked on him just as I woke up this evening, and now Karin is with him. Everything is just fine.”</p>
<p>“Yes, I know,” she repeated, “fine, everything is fine.”</p>
<p>“Rehema, look at me” he said shaking her lightly. “You did everything correctly and he’s a strong man. He will wake up perfectly when the circle is complete. Now, feed well and go back to him.”</p>
<p>“Yes, I know,” the vampiress let herself fall as Eric pushed her on a sofa. “A donor is coming.”</p>
<p>Eric felt his wife’s inner turmoil through the blood they had shared a month ago. And he felt a tenderness only his children made him experience. Rehema had just turned her longtime human lover and was worried that something could go wrong. It was her first child and she had asked Eric to assist and guide her through the proceedings. Indeed, the beginning was a very critical moment in a vampire’s life.</p>
<p>Legends had artfully concealed the real danger under the cover of a dreadful pattern involving the death of the turned before his waking to vampire’s (un)life from the ground. The truth being less imaginative but definitely as dangerous as its creative mythical counterpart: the vampire had to suck a relevant amount of blood from the human and give it back from his untainted supply. The trick, in fact, was to draw the right quantity of blood from the would-be turned (which varied according to the dimension and strength of the individual) and to return it from a part of the vampire’s body not yet reached by the blood just ingested.</p>
<p>There was a series of issues which could lead to death before the true transformation began: the most common being heart failure due to a larger than optimal draining or heart attack due to terror. Then, if the chosen (or victim, depending on the willingness of the subject) passed the draining stage, problems could arise with the blood the vampire had to give back: it could be too little (on the contrary, too much was never a problem) or not enough pure. In both cases a real transformation never started and the drained died for the haemorrhage (mostly because the blood vessels punctured by the vampire’s fangs did not close and the draining continued till death).</p>
<p>In the event of a successful exchange, yet other circumstances could unfold in the wrong way and determine death or other incapacitations of the chosen: blood incompatibility. The receiving organism, in fact, could turn its defences against the invading blood’s cells and tragically succumb to its own internal war. Though, this case was debated. Given the superior strength of vampire blood it was deemed unlikely that it could be successful fought by the host organism. Those who argued so explained the rejection the other way round: it was the vampire blood which tested and dismissed the host blood (because of a disease or other unfathomable weakness) thus causing the organism’s death.</p>
<p>At the end, if the chosen overcame all said pitfalls, the true transformation began and the vampire blood worked its magic, turning its host into the perfect organic machine that could challenge centuries unscathed.</p>
<p>It could take from a few days to up a week for the stronger blood to infiltrate all organs and change the dna code, so modifying the main requirements of the body. From then on, in fact, feeding would be restricted to blood and water, sun’s radiation would be life threatening, sleeping patterns would resemble a comatose state. Though, in exchange for these shortcomings the body would gain overall strength, significant improvement of senses’ capabilities, unparalleled healing ability and, in some cases, what used to be called special gifts.</p>
<p>Cillian Byrne, Rehema’s lover since a decade, was going through all those physical alterations in his deep sleep and today was the eighth night. He was expected to wake up any time.</p>
<p>Eric’s phone’s vibration drew his attention and Karin’s voice filled the large hall as he opened the communication. “It’s time. Bring her in.”</p>
<p>Eric and his wife entered the area of the basement specifically reserved for turnings and adjusted their sight to the dim lit space.</p>
<p>“Go ahead, Rehema,” said Eric putting a kiss on his wife’s forefront. “It’s better to be alone to imprint on your child. I’ll stay outside the room with Karin.”</p>
<p>Rehema nodded and hastened toward the door Karin stayed by, squeezed her hand and entered the room.</p>
<p>The imprinting was the last most delicate moment of the turning, and doing it properly assured the right onset of that momentous and complex bonding that was the base of the relationship between maker and child. It was the inception of a deep mental and emotional connection that marked and tied indelibly the rising vampire to his maker.</p>
<p>A good and strong imprinting assured a powerful bond.</p>
<p>A good and strong maker assured a healthy bond.</p>
<p>“Everything went on smoothly,” Karin remarked sitting on the couch.</p>
<p>“Did you doubt?” Eric seemed surprised.</p>
<p>“No… it’s that… so much could go wrong—”</p>
<p>“Cillian is a strong man, with a good head. He will be a good vampire.”</p>
<p>“Sure,” Karin stood, then sat again.</p>
<p>Eric typed over the transparent screen of his handheld terminal and pocketed it. “It’s almost over, Karin. I just sent a message to the donors service. Three, large and sturdy,” he smiled. “Cillian will be so thirsty to drink a sea, if his thirst is comparable to his appetite as a human.”</p>
<p>Karin smiled uneasily and nodded. “Once you told me my turning was about to screw up badly…”</p>
<p>“I most certainly did not express myself that way.”</p>
<p>“What happened exactly?”</p>
<p>“I told you, Karin,” Eric reached out and took her hand, “you were quite beaten up, that’s why your body’s reaction was slower and more painful that what would have been had you been healthy to begin with.”</p>
<p>“Are you sure it was not my… bad blood?”</p>
<p>“Karin,” Eric took her other hand and locked eyes with her. “Your blood was and is perfect. You were and are stronger than you think. Your desire to live was fierce and deeper than all the evil you had faced in life. I’m proud to have been your maker.”</p>
<p>Silent tears went down her cheeks. “I don’t know why I’am so emotional… I don’t—”. She swept her face and continued. “Anything could have gone wrong and Rehema would have lost the love of her life.”</p>
<p>“Turnings are difficult moments, yes. But the odds were not against in this case,” Eric countered. “Tell me what is really going on in here,” his finger tapped her head lightly.</p>
<p>Karin was silent for a while, discomfort running in her body. “Hunter told me he’s not ready to be turned: he needs more time,” she whispered.</p>
<p>A gentle knock at the door of the basement made them remember why they were there. Three donors entered and sat nervously on the seatings scattered in the lounge. Eric assessed their suitability and was satisfied. Then he turned his attention to Karin and said: “Dawn is closing in, child. Tomorrow night first thing join me as soon as you wake up.”</p>
<p>She closed her eyes and nodded.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>That day Eric did not sleep comfortably.</p>
<p>A disturbing edginess constricted his lungs, his stomach, his gut.</p>
<p>It was longtime since he had dwelled in that specific past that included Felipe’s minions, Ocella, Sookie and a lot of regrets. It was not healthy. It brought back pains he thought forgotten and gave them new life. Surely somewhere, sometime a philosopher had warned against living in the past. Eric did not remember the name but he was positive that a human had come up with this useless piece of advice. As if one could really direct his thoughts and push them toward greener pastures as a herd of compliant sheeps.</p>
<p>Indeed, most times Eric swerved his wandering mind far from dangerous places. The trick was to busy himself with anything else, and governing offered umpteen inspirations in that regard.</p>
<p>Yet, sometimes, a word, a colour, a gesture triggered an uncalled for reminiscence and the void inside him resurfaced again.</p>
<p>These past days, Cillian’s impending turning had stirred up all those offending memories in which Sookie had refused (or implied to refuse) the opportunity to be turned. It had stung then. It still stung now.</p>
<p>And presently, as Rehema entered their private drawing room hand in hand with Cillian, Eric could not avoid thinking that had he turned his first wife she would have been there with him. Maybe. A sharp stab in his guts reminded him how detrimental to his mental health were such pointless musings. </p>
<p>Rehema had regained her composure and beamed shamelessly.</p>
<p>“How do you feel, Cillian?” asked Eric offering him a cup of blood.</p>
<p>“Thank you,” replied uncertain the newborn vampire, “it’s more than creepy. As if someone had beaten me up then shot me with all the best chemistry money could buy.” His slender and tall frame looked like that of his lover, while his milky white complexion offered a superb counterpoint to her chocolate shade. His body, though, had not Rehema’s grace nor her flexuosity; it was hard surfaces and pointy corners marked by years of fighting. And his face was not any better: a crooked nose between deep set eyes and a mouth without lips. The only gentle, and incongruous, feature was a swarm of freckles that dotted his cheekbones giving him a weird childish look. </p>
<p>“Yes, disorienting, uh?” Karin nodded. “Feed well and sleep plenty: in a couple of months you’ll be fine.”</p>
<p>“You can say it, I feel wonderfully… but upside down.”</p>
<p>“Well, we’re better going,” Rehema said turning to her lover. “I have to test your movement coordination, physical resistance and so on.”</p>
<p>Karin watched them leaving the sitting room and caught his maker’s face out of the corner of her eye. A ripple of sadness, quickly replaced by his usual blankness, had flashed briefly at the sight of the two vampires’ knowing looks.</p>
<p>“Maker, how are you?”</p>
<p>Eric turned to her wearing an amused expression. “Fine, child. What about you?”</p>
<p>“Happy and scared,” she said after a brief hesitation. “I think… I think I’m beginning to understand what it means to lose one’s peace of mind for a human.”</p>
<p>“Tell me,” Eric offered watching her with a quiet smile.</p>
<p>“Probably… exactly what you felt… for your human…”</p>
<p>He froze.</p>
<p>“If a series of unforeseeable circumstances forced me to part from Hunter—”</p>
<p>Eric interrupted her hastily lifting a hand. “Don’t go there, child.”</p>
<p>“…I would fall apart,” she carried on unfazed, “and I can’t say how long it would take me to stand up again.”</p>
<p>“I don’t want to go there… again.”</p>
<p>“Did you ever leave that place?” asked Karin in a whisper. Sweetly.</p>
<p>Eric swallowed a lump of sand down his throat. “I made a choice, then. Her life for a few of my years and—”</p>
<p>“A choice?” interjected Karin. “A choice implies at least two possible actions. What was the action you did not choose?”</p>
<p>“I could’ve accepted to comply to my maker’s will and leave immediately for Oklahoma and give Sookie to Felipe and—”</p>
<p>“I would hardly call it a choice,” Karin’s tone lost all its sweetness. “You bargained for her life ‘cause your own sanity depended on her living. Freely.”</p>
<p>“Karin, I—”</p>
<p>“No, maker. I just wanted to tell you that I understand what you’re living since… then. You’re not fooling me, or Pam. Not even Rehema, I think.”</p>
<p>“There’s nothing to say, and I’m not trying to fool anyone,” Eric stood up and exhaled slowly. “I live. And that’s more than most people of that time of my life can say.”</p>
<p>“Maker…”</p>
<p>Eric stopped in front of a window, staring at the dark sky. Immense and indifferent, as usual. It was weirdly comforting that a sky was always up there no matter what happened down here.</p>
<p>“I’m scared at the mere idea of losing him. To age and death, or to a turning gone sour.”</p>
<p>“Do not let fears make your choices,” Eric did not turn his gaze from the sky, “and stalling is a choice, child.”</p>
<p>Karin nodded behind him. Then, in a whisper barely audible, she asked, “What scares you most?”</p>
<p>Eric was silent, his mind lost into a sky not very friendly now.</p>
<p>After a long time he said, “Not knowing. Not knowing if she’s alive, happy, surrounded by her children, loved by the man (or vampire, were, fairy, whomever) she loves. This void is always with me.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0019"><h2>19. Chapter 19</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Alia closed her eyes and stood still.</p>
<p>High rocky mountains and dark forests surrounded her in a cold yet friendly embrace, and she had welcomed them. Had let them find their place inside her. And now she had the strength of Corraidhín’s peak and the quietness of the Dubhthach Eí Forest, where the rose purple Fairyslipper opened its petals. The power without beauty is harsh, without calm is rowdy. A fae has to embody them all.</p>
<p>Alia inhaled deeply.</p>
<p>The air was crisp and smelled of wet soil, and she felt balanced and ready. Without a conscious decision her body jumped sideways bending backward at the same time to avoid a blade from his first opponent, then she slashed his neck with the traditional scimitar in her right hand and drew a drop of blood from the throat of the second competitor with the dagger in her left hand.</p>
<p>A dance and a challenge.</p>
<p>She regained an upright position and bowed slightly to her parring partners, two male fairies of Niall’s Guard. Both stood clenching their slightly bleeding neck and throat, and bowed stiffly to the blond fae.</p>
<p>Alia’s limited body strength was countered by her strong mind and no one by now thought to win easily with the lithe telepath. Even if very few knew of the extent of her mental prowess and most considered her ability came fromthe mastery of magic, the respect she had garnered was renewed constantly by her performances as Assistant to lord Dermot, the Envoy from the Triumvirate, to lord Dillon, the Delegate to the Triumvirate, and to prince Niall, the nominally ruler of the Brigant house.</p>
<p>In fact, during the last three years and a half, Alia had assisted her relatives in their diplomatic missions to the Water and Earth Fairies’ Kingdoms, facilitating the signature of agreements, treaties and several trilateral arrangements as well as joint missions to Dae strongholds in the Earth dimension.</p>
<p>Her encounters with Aengus had decreased because of their different commitments, but neither of them had tried to find more opportunities for meeting than those allowed by their obligations. When it happened Alia and Aengus easily fell into their usual pattern of intense sexual exchanges. </p>
<p>Dermot, for his part, had ceased to make advances to her since Aengus had become her casual sex partner, and treated her respectfully as a treasured resource and a loved relative. Indeed, in their journeys they had found again the easiness of sharing quarters and company as they had experienced when living together on Earth. Alia had come to perceive Dermot’s resemblance to her brother reassuring instead of uncomfortable and they had worked well together.</p>
<p>Niall, however, had changed. He had always had a sort of ambiguity about him, since their first encounter on Earth, and Alia had alternatively trusted and suspected his motives without really understanding anything of the man himself. Surely, a being of over a thousand years was intrinsically different from an average human, and the mere fact that one could think in terms of centuries made his thoughts so convoluted as to be almost impenetrable. Alia had experienced that as a kind of gap hard to bridge with fairies, daemons and vampires alike.</p>
<p>Yet, since she had been informed that her own lifespan would presumably reach those same lengths her way of thinking had somehow drifted, rather imperceptibly at the beginning, then noticeably even to herself those days.</p>
<p>Her half-dae godfather had contacted her a few days earlier to give the usual account about her relatives on Earth, namely her brother and his family. He had underlined the fact that they were getting older, as the time lag -though sensibly slowed down- was still quite unbalanced between their dimensions. Cataliades had said something in the order of forty years, but Alia did not recall very well, and that was exactly what startled her now. She had noticed since her coming to the fae world that her appearance had got younger than her actual age, and her energy and vitality had increased too. However, the real changeover in her way of thinking had been when she had begun to relate her younger and energetic body to the news that her lifespan would have been in the order of hundreds of years. It had happened a few years ago and, nonetheless, she had not paid it the deserved attention.</p>
<p>Jason was getting older, his children were adults now. A nephew, Corbett Mitchell, and a niece, Sookie Adele.</p>
<p>Alia felt weirdly unresponsive. She watched the face of the guard waiting for her word, the familiar landscape of the Northern Territories around her and, finally, her weapons, a dagger and a scimitar. The weapons were jewels of crafts<em>fae</em>ship, a gift from her swordmaster Chadwick the Dancer (the perfectly balanced dagger, which felt as an extension of her own arm) and from Aengus (the traditional patrician blade of choice) on the day of her ceremony. They were her most cherished possessions.</p>
<p>“Tell my great-grandfather that I’ll meet him in an hour.” Alia said to the guard and turned her gaze to the Dubhthach Eí Forest so as to find there, among the coniferous hard greens and the wiles of innocent orchids, a way to soothe the distant anxiety enveloping her mind.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Alia, my child,” Niall said with distant affection, “your insight has been correct, as usual, and now they are willing to welcome our… suggestions.” Her great-grandfather was speaking of the Earth Fairies clan they were discussing an agreement with about the portals use rules.</p>
<p>Alia was beyond the stage where his terms of endearment annoyed her. This behaviour of his had become like a garish garment she did not like to see but, not wearing it herself, she was not to blame. And, at the end of the day, it could be listed under his many outlandish quirks some of which, by the way, were migrating to her, or so her friend Rhiannon told her the last time they had met. But her fae-dae companion did not know of her years as crazy Sookie and of the blank face she had worn to mask her feelings against everybody’s assault to her mind. Now, she had simply resumed her old habit to disguise her reaction when purposely reading a mind or dealing with an impervious counterpart.</p>
<p>“Good. May I skip the next meeting, then?”</p>
<p>“Dear, it would be better to come. You can just sit and be quiet. Your mere presence would be enough.” Niall proposed with a faint smile.</p>
<p>The blond fairy nodded. “I was thinking of going back to Earth for a while. Desmond told me the time lag is quite relevant, now.”</p>
<p>“Yes, it is. But everything is fine, dearest.”</p>
<p>“Yes, I know. Maybe I’d rather meet Jason again, instead of walking his coffin to the cemetery.” Alia replied.</p>
<p>“Is he ill? I didn’t know of it.”</p>
<p>The fairy thought that even irony was wasted on her oldest relative. “No, Niall, no illness that Desmond spoke about. It’s just age, you know, average humans tend to last decades, not centuries.”</p>
<p>“Oh, sure,” Niall was unfazed by her bitter remarks. “Did you mention it to Aengus?”</p>
<p>“No. Not yet. I was just thinking it today.” Alia noticed the way the older fairy referred to his grand-child, and could not help to hear a hint of dismay, trepidation, disquiet? She could not place it correctly and shook away the sensation while heading to the next room to change for the meeting.</p>
<p>The summit wrapped up in two more days and Alia chose to go back to the Orlagh’s Valleys with a horse, instead of teleporting with her great-grandfather. She referred to them as horses, but they were taller and stronger than average Earth’s mammals, ran longer distances and faster than their equivalent on the other dimension and, by all means, they were a different breed. Still they had an air of horses about them and Alia used them as first means of transport.</p>
<p>Moreover, at the present time, a horse ride would give her time to think and, especially, to be alone with herself. Indeed, one of the main reason she loved those animals and the transport services they provided was that they let her time to adjust from a place to another. She never got used to teleporting and, given that she could not teleport and not always her kin were available to take her around, horses were her favourite choice. In the last years Aengus had pushed her to resume her teleporting lessons, as her spark had increased enormously since her arrival and she could probably master it as of now. She had agreed but postponed it indefinitely.</p>
<p>“Aengus won’t like it,” Niall said. “He told me you two have a round of meetings with daemons in a few days. He surely would prefer you to be at home at once.”</p>
<p>Alia felt a hint of irritation, but dampened it immediately and smiled nonchalantly. “I’m sure he would tell me what he prefers. He knows how to find me.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Dillon looked after her mother, Branna, a water fairy Niall had married long ago, with milky white skin and dark hair and eyes. Alia had learned something more about him in the last years, accompanying him to official meetings with other fae clans. His demeanour and appearance that, at the beginning, had struck her as scary and aloof, now seemed less distressing and his company was tolerable, sometimes even pleasant. His relationship with his wife Binne seemed very shaky, as she was not appearing at formal and less formal gatherings since a few years. On the contrary, his mood and general disposition had improved after that, and the telepath’s formal commitments with him had resulted less uncomfortable to endure.</p>
<p>Now, as Alia watched Dillon and his son together in the formal sitting room of the Brigants’ mansion, she realised Aengus was a healthier version of his father. Taller and heavier built than him, her cousin’s face retained the same aloof expression of his father but was handsome and, therefore, less scary and unwelcoming. They rarely laughed, and when it happened it was evident that their facial features were not used with the movements involved in that countenance. Yet, Alia was used to more expressions from Aengus and his overall behaviour with her was all but frightening. Simply, she did not catch every nuance of Dillon’s behaviours and unconsciously gave the father the attributes she had seen in his son.</p>
<p>“Fae,” Dillon welcomed her, “it seems your animal is slow or doesn’t know the way home.”</p>
<p>“I dropped by Rhiannon,” Alia said bowing slightly her head.</p>
<p>“How are her children doing?” Aengus’ eyes were on her, his stance conveying mild annoyance.</p>
<p>“Very well, I’d say: running, screaming, crying, complaining, fighting. All children’s stuff.”</p>
<p>“I see. Rhiannon shall be exultant.”</p>
<p>“Yes, a bit tired too.” Alia exhaled noisily. “As I am too. I’ll see you two later on, I guess.”</p>
<p>“You have to report on the meeting,” Aengus said. “Now.”</p>
<p>“I’m having a shower, now,” countered Alia. “If you want to join me I’ll report verbally.”</p>
<p>“Fae,” Aengus said following her, “don’t make me regret all the leeway I’ve given you.”</p>
<p>“If you behave, I’ll let you wash my back,” she said smiling, once they were alone on the stairs leading to the upper floor. She went to the rooms she usually occupied when at the family residence, undressed in the sitting room and entered the adjoined bathroom.</p>
<p>“Talks went smoothly after the first two days,” Alia said feeling the temperature of the water filling the bathtub. “Only two people were opposed to your advice. Did not Niall fill you in?”</p>
<p>“Yes. Fialka and Eldon.” Aengus was undressing slowly under Alia’s gaze. “I wanted to know from you what or who was behind it.”</p>
<p>“It was not clear, I just got some images, a few names and the feeling of fear and greediness,” Alia had already explained to him how it was like reading a mind. People rarely had clear and strong thoughts, unless caught in a very delicate task and all their attention, conscious and unconscious, was absorbed in the action. Usually people had a lot of thoughts all at once, even when engaged in a determined work, and the only way to pick the relevant thought was to take the conversation or the person’s attention to the very matter of investigation, or to distract him and delve into his mind. With fairies, who had generally strong minds and detected any intrusion as a disturbing itch at the nape or a strong and sudden headache, it was better to tread carefully.</p>
<p>“Do tell.” Aengus said sitting on the bottom of the bathtub, and helping Alia straddling him. Alia watched him. Sometimes he appeared dubious about her. He knew the difficulties in reading minds, both Rhiannon and Alia had explained so in detail, but he had also put to the test Alia’s skills and she had fared better than her fae-dae tutor had anticipated. This latter, in fact, had told Alia that Iana had the most convoluted mind Rhiannon had ever touched, and naturally reacted fiercely in case of intrusion. Alia, however, the day of her ceremony, had delved deeply and undetected in her mind, and had located all the messages Aengus had put into the girl’s mind. That day Aengus had risked a lot, letting Alia know the real force of his mental powers, but he had never regretted it. To her knowledge.</p>
<p>There had been a time, around the time of her ceremony, that he had been hesitant with her, as if she could have done something wrong and he would not have stopped her. Or maybe yes. It had lasted months. Alia too had been uncertain, but could not say why. Then, her engagements and his commitments had taken over and the moment was over.</p>
<p>“Lucilla is one name, then Alfyn and Rogan. I had the feeling they’re water fae, but I’m not sure. The image was a woman, long red-brownish hair, hazel-brown eyes, beautiful in a hard way, strong features, I’ve never seen her. Both Fialka and Eldon were terrified by her.”</p>
<p>“Excellent.” Aengus caressed and kissed her breasts, while one hand went down stroking her not too gently. “You’re precious and tasty… mmm, so good… take me inside, now.”</p>
<p>Alia considered to refuse, just to annoy him. But she was excited and enjoyed his ministrations. She lifted, lowered herself on him and stood still. “Don’t you want to know anything else?”</p>
<p>“Mmm, yes. Move, now.”</p>
<p>“Lucilla promised a wife to Eldon, and children, and riches on Earth.” She slid up and down, slowly.</p>
<p>Alia did not finished her account on the meeting and Aengus forgot about treaties, threats, whatever. That evening they left behind uncertainties and pains and lived the present. A time more forgiving than the past, more real than the future.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Desmond told me the time lag is quite noticeable. If I want a chance to say hello to him, it’s now,” Alia said.</p>
<p>Aengus had listened to her speech distantly, then did not speak for a while. She could see that he was thinking. His eyes, though, seemed worried. Or something related. Alia did not like their shade of melancholy. Once he had told her not to cultivate human friendship, or strengthen her ties with them, not being healthy to dwell in the past for a creature who was meant to live a very long time. And humans tend to become past in a very short time, indeed. The past, therefore, could become a cage and a torture, either of them not thriving choices for long living beings.</p>
<p>“Cataliades,” said Aengus. Then, added, “Jason…” but the word hung mid-air without further elaboration.</p>
<p>“At any rate, I’ve already agreed with your father to be available… if and when needed,” she said. It was an awkward moment and she was not sure what it told about her decision.</p>
<p>“So,” Aengus seemed reluctant, “what are your plans exactly?”</p>
<p>“I have none, truly.” Alia had not really thought about her going back to Earth, and the mere idea was somehow unsettling now. “I think I’ll go there, see him, my nephew and niece, then I’ll make up my mind. Maybe I will go back and fro for a while, till he lives…”</p>
<p>Aengus nodded.</p>
<p>Rhiannon had warned her to be herself with her cousin. She had not understood then, and even now those words rang at the fringe of her comprehension as a fruit on a high branch. She could see and smell its ripeness but could not reap it.</p>
<p>Aengus inhaled her scent.</p>
<p>Alia closed her eyes and waited for him to say something. Anything.</p>
<p>He stood silent.</p>
<p>“Will you accompany me to a portal?” Alia’s voice was thin, hesitant.</p>
<p>His eyes were again pitch black and distant. “Sure.”</p>
<p>And the moment was gone.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0020"><h2>20. Chapter 20</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Alia arrived on Earth through the portal hidden in the woods on her land in Bon Temps. Her house had never been rebuilt after the bombing that had blown it up a few days after her leaving for Faery. An attempt on her life, had reported Cataliades. And now the area was a luxuriant clearing that displayed a scented array of green, pink, yellow, red, violet in all shapes and sizes. Thousands of flowers had covered what little had remained of her past.</p>
<p>Diantha, her godfather’s niece, waited for her at the other side of the portal. A very different Diantha from the one Alia remembered.</p>
<p>“Is it you, Diantha?” the fae asked blinking in surprise.</p>
<p>“Itsme,” the petite daemon nodded stiffly, “welcomeback.”</p>
<p>Alia took in the looks of the unusual version of Diantha in front of her: a prissy grey suit in a slightly bright fabric, dark boots partially covered by tight trousers, incredibly black hair held in a high pony tail and a dark bag across the shoulder. It was the first indicator that time really could alter dramatically everything.</p>
<p>“What happened to you, Diantha?” said Alia straightening her light blue ensemble, at the same time trying to disentangle her foot from a root.</p>
<p>“Couldaskthesametoyoufae,” the daemon winked and walked toward the clearing beyond the woods.</p>
<p>Alia’s laugh mingled with the loud chattering of crickets. “All right. Life happened to us, I guess.”</p>
<p>The soft glowing light of sunset drenched the landscape giving it a fairy quality, and the fae in her could not help to rejoice. A peculiar coincidence, would have thought Alia had she paid attention.</p>
<p>“YourbaggagellbedeliveredtoourhouseinNewOrleans,” Diantha informed Alia getting on a vehicle seemingly hovering over the grass.No tyres were visible and, therefore, Alia was not sure what to think of it. The daemon continued: “IlltakeyoutoyourbrotherinShreveport.”</p>
<p>Alia had not imagined what she would have found on Earth after eight years three months and five days in Faery, which amounted to forty one years six months and sixteen days in the human dimension. The time lag, in fact, had shifted a few times and run at different speed in the course of that time.</p>
<p>She had regularly visited Earth, but only for short periods of time, in protected environments and with guards to see that nothing happened outside the strict plans laid out for her lessons or official meetings. Further, her sojourns had mostly been in daemons’ or fairies’ territories. Therefore, she was not prepared for the technological leap forward humans had changed their world with. She felt like a child in a fantastic playground.</p>
<p>Though, it was not the spectacular buildings and futuristic means of transportation or the overall outlandish look of the landscape that struck her most. It was the small ways in which everyday life had changed, unnoticeably for who had had time to adjust to the transformation, astonishingly for who had jumped from four decades earlier or from a world, Faery, that worked on different principles.</p>
<p>Her brother Jason and his wife lived in Shreveport, in a thirty-second floor flat of a downtown condo, complete with a vertical vegetable garden and an autonomous power grid (solar and wind) to comply with the energy expenditure regulations. They had retired a few years ago and had moved to that location from their previous cottage in a suburban area. Their children, Corbett Mitchell and Sookie Adele (respectively forty and thirty seven years old), worked together as retailers of luxury flycars. The Chinese and Russian products they sold exclusively for Louisiana and Florida offered a driving course and Sookie Adele was the instructor pilot, while Corbett Mitchell run the maintenance shop.</p>
<p>“At the old Merlotte’s,” Jason was filling in his sister about the last decades of their lives. “Fifteen years after you left, Bon Temps died definitely: the last business to give up was Merlotte’s. He sold the place to a Chinese company that produced small flying cars, a European patent they had just bought. Michelle and I moved to Shreveport: my career at the department had already veered to cyber crimes and Michelle retrained as accountant for a med lab.”</p>
<p>“How is it that Corbett’s and Sookie’s warehouse and flying school moved to Merlotte’s?” asked Alia with mild interest.</p>
<p>“We kept the old house there for the children and went there every weekend. Corbett has always been good at fixing machines and Sookie liked flying more than anything else. They studied and, when your lawyer offered to finance their business, they took over from the Chinese/Russian…” Jason spoke with pride and nostalgia, his voice strong as his well aged body.</p>
<p>“Cataliades did what?” Alia could not follow the flow of words her brother was flooding her with. It seemed he had waited too long and did not believe he would have had the chance to tell her everything.</p>
<p>“Didn’t you know? He told us he was managing your money and wanted to invest into family. The business is still partially yours: the kids managed to buy back half of it and—”</p>
<p>“It’s great, Jason,” Alia had no memory of any of it, but surely her godfather had told her something. Simply, it was not her life or anything she could relate with. “I’m proud of them and can’t wait to meet them.” It seemed the right thing to say.</p>
<p>“Here, we were thinking about what exactly tell the kids,” Michelle said after exchanging a meaningful look with her husband. “You know, you’re supposed to be Jason’s sister and you look… you look barely into your twenties…”</p>
<p>Suddenly Alia felt all the years that separated her from her brother and family. It was not only the age difference and the way they were ageing while she was stuck into a younger and stronger body. It was the way they thought, the things they did not know, the limited world in which they lived.</p>
<p>“You… you never told them about our… origin, right?” Alia already knew their children had no spark (Cataliades and a fairy had visited them both at their birth and reported to the Brigants).</p>
<p>Michelle shook her head. “We thought better not to. His two-natured needs…” she waved a hand toward Jason, “…we thought it was enough, you know. When you were gone the two-natured passed a really awful time…”</p>
<p>“It’s all right, now,” added Jason to fill the silence, “no one pays attention to us anymore.”</p>
<p>“What were you thinking to tell them?” asked Alia with a faint dread in her gut.</p>
<p>“Well, cousin, niece,” offered Michelle, “what do you think?”</p>
<p>Alia could not fail to notice that, at least, her sister-in-law kept her in the family, just two or three steps removed. Both Niall and Aengus had required absolute silence on her true origin with people who knew nothing about fairies (included family) and, with those who already knew of their existence, they asked her to give vague and contradictory information about herself or other fairies.</p>
<p>“Yes, it’s reasonable, I think,” Alia agreed, noticing how little they had asked about her and of what she had done all those years. Their world was their only interest and there was no room for other weirdness than theirs.</p>
<p>“So, cousin or niece?” asked Jason after a while.</p>
<p>“Whatever you deem better,” the fae said finally. “It’s up to you.”</p>
<p>Jason and Michelle exchanged another look and Michelle said: “Niece. The age difference is too marked. You’re almost seventy years old, and even a cousin should be at least forty, thirty years old. And you,” she turned to Alia, “don’t look the part, even accounted for very expensive rejuvenating therapies.”</p>
<p>“A niece,” repeated Alia. “For the rest, what should I say?”</p>
<p>“We told them you had to get away from Bon Temps because your connection with vampires, and that it was not a safe place for you,” Jason informed her.</p>
<p>“What kind of connection you mentioned?”</p>
<p>“Just work… and a dangerous friendship.”</p>
<p>“Never mentioned kings, takeovers, fairies, daemons?”</p>
<p>“No, no. Only vampires. I just mentioned fairies in fairy tales,” Michelle giggled awkwardly, then added: “Daemons? C’mon, what—”</p>
<p>“Just a figure of speech, nothing real,” lied Alia and wondered what had she expected from them. She knew daemons and fairies, and some other special creatures, never thought to come out to lift the veil of ignorance from humans’ eyes. And she had been one of those ignorant people till the age of twenty two. Would she swap place now with that young, naive and inexperienced girl? Would she rewrite her life from then on? Would she prefer the warm and secure cocoon she had back then instead of the immense, cold, dreadful but also wonderful, powerful world she inhabited now? She had already answered all those questions when she had embraced her true nature.</p>
<p>The fae stood up from the couch in Jason’s sitting room and, for the first time, looked around. The flat was a mixture of old and new as the humans who lived in there. The baggage every one carried in life visible in the now ancient granny’s cupboard or the worn blanket left on an odd bed-like fixture (which, Jason explained proudly, would hug the body and massage it in thirty different ways while administering the chosen medications). It felt at once weird and intimate watching the components of their life scattered in the room. It made Alia think of the lightness of her baggage. Chadwick would have approved. She stopped at the large window listening to her brother explaining the use of every device the house was equipped with. The city landscape was unfamiliar and human. She inhaled and exhaled, then ran briefly her mind exercises: unfolding, freeing, combing. Thousands of phosphenes appeared in her mind as she detected hundreds of minds and their thoughts. She closed immediately her mind to the outside world and turned to her brother.</p>
<p>“I was wondering… are flycars a good business? I mean, I haven’t seen many coming here, just half a dozen or so,” she asked. Then added, “A business partner would notice that, and inquire.”</p>
<p>Jason and his wife bursted out laughing. “That’s exactly what I asked twenty years ago. And you know what my son said?”</p>
<p>“‘How many Bugatti, Lamborghini, Rolls-Royce, Ferrari, Tesla do you have to see to know they’re good business?’” Michelle said mimicking her son’s voice. They all laughed heartily for the first time that evening.</p>
<p>“Could I ever afford one?”asked Alia. “Maybe I’d settle just for a little fly with Sookie…”</p>
<p>“You can, Sookie. Definitely you can,” answered her brother. “Your lawyer made it clear the kids could expand their business, buying a fleet and renting them. With your backing.”</p>
<p>“Didn’t they?”</p>
<p>“They’re thinking about it,” Michelle waved her hands joyfully, “maybe you can ask them…”</p>
<p>“Sure thing!” exclaimed Alia. “In a few days I have to go to Nola for some business, then I will be back here and… well, niece Alia will have her flight.”</p>
<p>
  
</p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The fae had not time to reacquaint with her old world, or to assess properly what world really was that. In those first days everything ran past her without having a chance to evaluate, taste, compare. At the end of the day she was exhausted and confused. A feast of information clouded her senses, exciting them all at once.</p>
<p>Her brother, her nephews, Bon Temps, Shreveport, even a new language conjured to overwhelm her perceptions. She was distant and happy, or perplexed and pensive.</p>
<p>No one of those she knew in her previous life was available to help finding a direction or a way in which things could be handled.</p>
<p>Jason, as much as he had evolved at Michelle’s side, had never been close to her and now he was even more alienated from her than before. She loved him and wanted to help and understand him, but it seemed beyond her abilities. Or so it appeared to her.</p>
<p>Tara Thornton, her old schoolmate and longtime best friend, had turned into an old bitter lady, three times divorced and neglected by her two children, who had moved to another state since a few decades. She still lived in Bon Temps, although the town’s only activity was the flycar business and the flying school owned by Jason’s children.</p>
<p>Sam Merlotte, whom Alia had difficulty in addressing with a qualifying term, had left for Texas some twenty five years earlier and no one seemed to know anything more about him. Not even Jason.</p>
<p>Finally, her witch friend Amelia Broadway, so ambivalent and overbearing, had died a year after Alia’s departure. That was the only fact Michelle could relay and, to be honest, the fae was not sure she would have contacted here had she been alive and around.</p>
<p>The reasons she had left had not changed, it was her who had to change the way she handled them. And she had changed a lot, Alia thought, in more ways that she had fully recognised.</p>
<p>On the fourth day she left Jason’s flat and immersed herself in the creative neighbourhood around one of the college’s main buildings. Jason had suggested her to stroll there as it was a reasonably safe and enjoyable area of the town. Shops, cafés, restaurants, music venues, theatres. It all seemed quite normal to Alia’s eyes. Maybe too many lights, some intrusive holograms and a tablet too vocal in her light topcoat’s pocket.</p>
<p>The tablet was the first object Diantha had given her and the instruction she had offered had been uttered so fast and so tightly that Alia had not retained a single word. Sookie Adele, her niece, had supplied concisely. The personal monitor (or tab, tabby, and at least other three idiotic pet names) was a transparent, three-folded slate which had all the function a man of that century definitely needed to have always available to lead a decent life: phone, television, computer, med advisor, personal documents attesting one’sidentity and properties, keys and apparently whatever else one could think of. Folded had the comfy dimension of a small diary, open seemed an average gossip magazine. It had the annoying default setting to connect to any other mildly <em>smart </em>electronic system (seemingly present in every object, from a washing-machine to a door, from a car to a signpost) in the radius of one and a half metres. Therefore the happy tablet chimed every now and then confirming reception of whatever was that two ostensibly inert objects had to tell each other when passing by.</p>
<p>Alia entered a bar, or something that looked like one, and sat at a table near a window facing a crossroad. She ordered a drink and tried to silence her tablet, when the device rang with a different tune. She patched a very improbable earplug the way Diantha had showed and the warm voice of Cataliades filled her head while his big face occupied most of the device’s unfolded surface. “Dearest, how are you?”</p>
<p>“Disoriented but very well, Desmond,” she giggled stupidly. “Everything is so… different. You?”</p>
<p>“I’d have liked to be there with you, but a round of very important meetings holds me out of LA for another few days and the audience could not be postponed. Did Diantha give you the folder with all the files you need to see?”</p>
<p>“Yes, Desmond. Inside this tablet I found everything.”</p>
<p>“Good. Those give you all the information you have to know for tomorrow royal audience. Have you seen them?”</p>
<p>“A cursory look, yes,” lied Alia who had not had the right spirit to delve into them properly. Then she added mockingly, “Am I supposed to present a paper? Is there any danger?”</p>
<p>“Absolutely not,my child,” Cataliades sweetened his tone. “I’d never send you into danger alone.”</p>
<p>“Good, then.”</p>
<p>“The king’s secretary is a friend of mine and assured me of the best welcoming for a Brigant.”</p>
<p>“I won’t stay long, it will be a courtesy visit to introduce myself, then I’ll leave. In and out in less than an hour,” Alia concluded.</p>
<p>“See you soon, Alia,” Cataliades seemed to hesitate, then added, “I’m so happy you came. It’s a very good thing.”</p>
<p>The fae grinned widely and the screen became transparent once again as the daemon cut the communication. She folded and pocketed the tablet, then reopened it again and inserted a number.</p>
<p>The voice-box answered briskly: “<em>Ravenscroft. Leave a message, brief and to the point. Maybe I’ll call you back.”</em></p>
<p>Alia smiled and thought that someone was always the same, and it was both reassuring and inspiring. She dictated her voice message in a girlish stupid tone: “<em>Sookie the Wanderer has come back. Will you find the time for an old friend? Call me soon, bitch!</em>”</p>
<p>Still smiling she browsed through the other numbers Diantha had left at her request, and put through another phone number. Disconnected. Then she sent a brief video recording to an email showing a very peculiar address that included words like <em>earth</em> and <em>guest</em>.</p>
<p>
  <em>Hi Karin,</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>this is Sookie, back in Louisiana. Hope you’re fine and to hear from you soon. My contacts are attached. Love.</em>
</p>
<p>The fae had already noticed that she could hardly relate anymore with humans and their points of view. However, her phone calls made it clear where her heart was set to go.</p>
<p>She relaxed in the morphing chair and absorbed the alien ambiance of the venue. The bar had been designed to appear a cozy, old club from a twentieth century dream, but the architect had not been strong in design history. The present day technology was only badly hidden and the motley clientele added the icing to the pre-chewed cake the planner had created. Slightly, she slipped into her habits: unfolding, freeing and combing her mind. She noted that the number of vampires had more than tripled since her time (but, it could have been the larger town), as well as that of weres. A few daemons lingered at the border of her awareness, and two fairies mingled with the humans.</p>
<p>She gradually lost herself in the weird sensation of being free and on the verge of a new life. It felt good. Incredibly good.</p>
<p>“May I sit in front of you and rejoice in your company?”</p>
<p>Alia did not open her eyes but hinted at a smile. The mellow male voice belonged to a daemon whose thoughts were erotic without being graphic, curious but not aggressive.</p>
<p>“Do you know a compelling story?” Alia singled out some of his thoughts and bit her lower lips. Yes, the dae had some good stories to tell.</p>
<p>“Maybe. What would you prefer to hear, young lady?”</p>
<p>“A cloak and dagger story, with monsters and a treasure, and secrets.” Alia heard a chair moving and a glass clinking on the metallic table.</p>
<p>A breath caressed her ear and a warm voice continued to weave its spells. “Would you like to hear the story of when daemons reigned on this planet?”</p>
<p>“Most definitely,” she turned and opened her eyes to meet a pair of smiling black orbs. Yes, she could use some distraction.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0021"><h2>21. Chapter 21</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Do not seek the because - in love there is no because, no reason, no explanation, no solutions.</p>
<p>(<em>Anaïs Nin</em>, French-Cuban American diarist, essayist, novelist, writer)</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Alia accepted gladly Diantha’s hospitality in New Orleans. Her place was a nice house in Jefferson parish, and the short afternoon flight from downtown allowed her to have a good look of the area. The sparse urbanisation, due to several floods and the large money involved in rescuing those areas from the waters, ensured privacy and good neighbours.</p>
<p>The house itself seemed afloat over a clearing close to the shore of Lake Salvador, and a precious unfenced garden surrounding it hinted at lazy sunny afternoons. Only when the flycar was descending on the landing pad, Alia saw the tapered pillars the house rested on. Dangerously thin and visible only when the light cut through them at a certain angle. A few steps introduced to the veranda circling the house and to a door that did not look like one.</p>
<p>Alia watched the seamless wall where the door was supposed to be and thought that everything had more sides than the eyes could see. It was an apt reminder to use all her senses and not to trust only one of them.</p>
<p>Diantha was not home but a code on Alia’s tablet gave her the key needed to pass the automatic security and open the door. She followed the instructions to find her bedroom on the first floor.</p>
<p>The large room faced an extensive patch of wood and the lake. Alia opened the French window to the terrace and unfolded her mind, opening it to the green area in front of her. The wet, warm air of the swamps carried dead plants smells and ducks’ cries. She detected some wild mammals mindprints (pigs, otters?) and a lot of reptiles (mostly alligators, she reckoned), but she did not feel like checking into them. The alienness of those primitive minds made her retreat in her own skin. Then, some weres in the distance, maybe hunting or providing security. Her mind lingered some more on the nearest houses, where she identified daemons and humans’ minds.</p>
<p>Alia was slowly reacquainting to Earth dimension features. Though, the otherness she had felt in Fairy, deeper at the beginning, then just a thin crust, was still with her. Probably this was the price she had to pay for her mixed heritage, or just for her gift. No place felt really hers. Rhiannon, herself with a foot in two dimensions, had talked of a constant uneasiness, like a negligible bruise that never healed. Alia had felt out of place for all her life, but in Fairy that feeling of dislocation had somehow diminished and now, back in the human dimension, it had resurfaced. Maybe, it was just the way she inhabited her own mind. Chadwick had spoken of the several natures they could discover in themselves, and about the obligation to welcome and learn all of them. The welcoming part she had done, accepting and fully embracing her fae essence into her human core. Now, it was time to learn how to make human, fae and a good pinch of dae thrive together. </p>
<p>Alia laid down on a lounger and set to absorb the last rays of the descending sun. She needed all the energy available to face this new world, hers for the moment. And to approach again the vampire world.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Eric woke up a couple of hours before sunset, as usual.</p>
<p>Since a few years his residence was a house in the middle of the Lake des Allemands, southwest of New Orleans. After human authorities had forbidden hunting, fishing and swimming in the entire area and its surroundings, the crown (disguised as a medical research company) had purchased the exclusive right to use the whole area for ninety nine years and, later on, the king had built his house.</p>
<p>The structure seemed to float over the waters and employed materials and technology derived from aerospace research. It was completely shielded against detection (both terrestrial and aerial systems) and energetically self-sustaining.</p>
<p>Eric watched the descending sun from his study, interrupting his reading from time to time to drink in the beauty of the view. The windows panes were screened against the most dangerous sun radiations, another by-product of aerospace technology he enjoyed since a few decades.</p>
<p>A buzzing noise disturbed his musings. It was a recorded voice message from Earth Three, the geostationary station serving as research laboratory for scientificexperiments, and for the testing of spacecraft systems and equipment required for missions to the Moon and Mars. His second-in-command was in a very delicate mission up there to pave the road for a consortium of companies, led by Eric and Rehema’s <em>Space Life Foundation</em>, whose aim was to be selected as the tenderer to negotiate the construction of Mars Two (expected to start in five years).</p>
<p>Karin sent reports every night and she had already updated him. Eric touched the play icon wavering on the screen and watched a fifteen second video.</p>
<p>His child’s face appeared briefly, then she unfolded her tablet and turned it to the camera. A very young Sookie smiled and said something. Then Karin appeared again and spoke. “The video is genuine, coming from Louisiana yesterday late afternoon. Careful. Karin out.” </p>
<p>Eric froze.</p>
<p>He ran the video again. Twice.</p>
<p>The voice was hers but lacking any southern accent, a foreign taste to it. Hers, nonetheless. The face, too. It was thinner and somehow different, younger than how he remembered from the last time, marked by a new attitude. Hardness. Strength. Her words filled his head as a toxic fog. <em>Hi Karin, this is Sookie, back in Louisiana. Hope you’re fine and to hear from you soon. My contacts are attached. Love. </em>Then a true smile and a blown kiss.</p>
<p>It was that smile that broke him. He stood up and cursed loudly.</p>
<p>Whoever had sent that message wanted to upset him. Handsomely.</p>
<p>Eric threw the tablet to the window in front of him. Then lifted a chair and threw that too. Then a marble orrery. He probably screamed more. The fog threatened his vision now, becoming a physical barrier only Sookie’s smile pierced. </p>
<p>And this someone had succeeded, thought Eric.</p>
<p>More than forty two years and a girl who looked so much like her made him freak out as an ape lacking any self control. Someone played with him and he jumped at his tune like a puppet. He was definitely incensed. At himself. And what was worse was that that someone knew him too well to be unknown to him.</p>
<p>Someone very close wanted him angry and out of hand.</p>
<p>He stopped his racing mind and stood in the middle of the room. He had not foreseen the side from where a blow could have come, but a move he had been expecting. This time, though, he did not appreciate the subtlety of his enemy. His precision.</p>
<p>He tried to remember his next engagements. The SunEnergy conference in three days, then the <em>Waters Management 2070</em> in Texas. He could not think of other delicate items. </p>
<p>The familiarity of his study seemed weird. The dark rosewood table with an African design lamp, the colourful Berber rug with leather cushions, even the real paper books piled below the windows looked different. He had been attacked at home. </p>
<p>Eric searched for his tablet to call his secretary, but the device stood scattered in a dozen pieces below the window. Someone was playing with him. Someone who knew him all too well. Who wanted to die in a long, subtle way.</p>
<p>A knock at the door, then a deceitful thin voice asked, “It’s me sir, everything alright?”</p>
<p>Xeres Macon was his day guard and the child of his former day guard Minuette Macon, a werecougar who had proved loyal and resourceful in her long time at his service. She was the exact copy of her mother down to her homosexual preference, but with an harder underside built in years of fighting training. She was born under the regime of the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs’ ignominious laws against supes and borne its mark with ferocity.</p>
<p>“Come in,” shouted Eric.</p>
<p>“Excuse me, sir. Latsis was calling you and… asked me to see if everything were fine with you,” her yellow eyes did not falter under his scrutiny.</p>
<p>“All is fine,” Eric muttered. “My tablet is out of service. Definitively. Bring another one.”</p>
<p>“Latsis is on my tab. Do you wish to answer him, sir?” Xeres stepped forward into the study and watched the untidy result of the king’s outburst.</p>
<p>Eric reached out and took the tablet. “Speak.”</p>
<p>“Good evening, sir. Your only appointment tonight is the reception of yet another scion of the Brigant house. I sent you a report—”</p>
<p>“Uh,” Eric snapped. “Sum it up.”</p>
<p>“I’m sorry, sir, but all our info are from my dae sources and very patchy, indeed.” Latsis’ voice conveyed his frustration, as every time he could not perform adequately. “She’s a young fae, probably Aengus’ sister. She’s been seen quite often as of lately, with the prince or his son at daemons’ business meetings with fairies. Rumours say she can read minds. Every mind.”</p>
<p>“Rumours or facts? What is she supposed to do in my kingdom?” Eric was wary in all his dealings with fairies, but in the last two decades vampires had opened up to daemons and fairies alike. </p>
<p>“Rumours, at the moment. No specific requests on their part. It seems she needs to spend some time on Earth.”</p>
<p>“Fairies don’t spend time here idly,” Eric huffed. “Keep a close eye on her movements.”</p>
<p>“Easy enough,” Latsis replied. “Her sponsor is Cataliades and I offered to pick her up this night. She’s a Brigant and that house is still standing at the top after all the upheavals of their political mess.”</p>
<p>“Cataliades,” Eric repeated. “I wonder why he did not introduce her himself.”</p>
<p>“Daemons business, at the highest level. He’s busy for the whole week. He tried to postpone the audience, but it was not possible.”</p>
<p>“You did not mention it.”</p>
<p>“It’s average administration, sir,” Latsis sounded surprised. “Your next appointments are more important and couldn’t be—”</p>
<p>“Yes, sure,” Eric cut it short. “Speaking of those, check them and highlight all the relevant points, our downsides. From our counterparts’ point of view. From a fae point of view, either.”</p>
<p>Latsis’ silence lasted a few seconds, then he carefully asked, “Is there something specific I have to take into consideration, sir?”</p>
<p>“Maybe,” Eric paused. “Maybe, I am under attack and don’t know yet.”</p>
<p>“Should I inform the queen?”</p>
<p>“I will do it personally at the end of the audience, tonight.”</p>
<p>Xeres left and Eric contemplated the aftermath of his tantrum with a detached glaze. His pleasant life could be tilted dangerously with a short video. It was a subtle and far fetching lever, not necessarily referred to his most immediate business. And then this last Brigant. And Cataliades as her sponsor on Earth. Cataliades. Something moved in Eric’s head, not yet a thought but more than flicker.</p>
<p>He wished to be done quickly with the reception and have some time to discuss it with Rehema. He needed a larger and more dispassionate view on the matter than the one he was mastering at the moment.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The house of Brigant had specifications and procedures for every occasion. In the event of a formal contact with another house, clan, kingdom or important counterpart of any kind, a dress code applied. Alia watched her limited wardrobe, contained in two medium trunks, trying to decide what was adequate for the impending audience.</p>
<p>She remembered the pomp of the formal vampire gatherings and the attention Pamela dedicated to her clothes. The choice was between elegant or traditional fae. She knew nothing of the current fashion on Earth, and was not really interested in exploring it any time soon. Then her eyes fell on the long dress she had worn at her Ceremony of Awakening and she smiled. This was another introduction to a world to rediscover, and she was a different traveler this time. After some pondering she opted for a full fae apparel and dressed.</p>
<p>Diantha had informed her that the king's secretary would have come to pick her up, showing a high level of respect for the house she represented and, probably, to assess any danger she could pose to the king.</p>
<p>“Danger? Me?” Alia puzzled. “It’s called paranoia, and vampires invented it.”</p>
<p>“Somedangeryoucanbefae,” the little daemon grinned. “Youlookgorgeous.”</p>
<p>“Do you like it?” Alia turned to show the way the precious weightless fabric billowed around her, mostly of its own choosing. The lavender robe hugged her loosely but not enough to hide more than a small knife. Her main weapon, as Chadwick had pointed out many times, was her mind. Yet with vampires it was not such a sharp tool, and she was nervous.</p>
<p>“Is there a danger to me, Diantha? Vampires, I mean. These monarchs, their court, whatever…”</p>
<p>“OncleDesmondworksforthem.”</p>
<p>“Yes, he told me,” Alia said, and added, “What about a traditional blade? Fae use to wear one on formal occasion…”</p>
<p>“Notallowedatcourt,” Diantha shook her head.</p>
<p>“Never thought to visit a speech therapist?”</p>
<p>“What?” the dae’s tone was infused with laugh and thrill.</p>
<p>“Let me settle here and I’ll show you,” promised Alia caressing her cheek and kissing her forehead. “Wish me good luck.”</p>
<p>“Goodluckfae.”</p>
<p>Alia wore a cape, a darker shade of lavender, over the scimitar Aengus had presented her with the day of her ceremony. The blade was held on her back, diagonally as a sign of respect for the host, through a decorated sling joined between her breasts with a jewel lock.</p>
<p>She walked till the green clearing just outside the house and waited for the flycar to land. Alia lifted her gaze and noticed the aircraft approaching. The king’s secretary was on time and, judging by his mindprint, a daemon.</p>
<p>“Lady Alia,” the daemon bowed reasonably without being servile, “my name is Nikomachos Latsis. I am the king’s secretary.”</p>
<p>“Pleased to meet you,” Alia nodded in turn and unfolded briefly her mind: the daemon’s mind was completely shielded. She did not push further.</p>
<p>She got on the car, a model she did not recognise. The crew was composed by a human pilot and two vampires guards. No one mentioned her blade, whose hilt sticked out on the right from behind her head and she sat with her hands over her legs. The secretary, his black hair ruffled and his black eyes glinting in the night, sat in front of her with a blank face.</p>
<p>The flycar took off. It was the first time Alia went to an official meeting without her own guards or one of her relatives.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Latsis led the fae to a private sitting room in the royal palace. It was a set of old style mansions, enclosed by several gardens and protected by a tall wall and taller trees, which appeared like some historic remnants of the previous century architecture but, obviously, had been provided with every modern technology. An elegant and inconspicuous choice that hinted at a powerful and self-assured monarch, or a not yet well established regime that still trod carefully. Alia already knew the first impression was the correct one.</p>
<p>Security seemed very tight but, again, without any remarkable show of strength. Probably technology accounted for much of the quiet character of the ambience. And, again, no one objected to her blade, showing they knew fairy traditions and allowed them. Alia was satisfied but went to stand close to a window, an easy way out, facing two doors and a wall strangely lacking furniture and decor. The minds she had detected since her arrival had been mostly vampires and a few weres.</p>
<p>The daemon secretary’s voice was warm and soothing, while his eyes never moved from her. “The king will be here shortly.”</p>
<p>Alia smiled. A little waiting just to make clear who wielded the power, but not too stretched to offend the guest. She started counting to measure how much respect her house could command. The secretary, as Alia anticipated, filled the silence with polite conversation.</p>
<p>“It was some time since I saw such a remarkable piece of craftfaeship, lady Alia,” said the secretary pointing out to her blade.</p>
<p>The fae’s face softened at his attempt to flattery and she decided to play his game. “It’s one of my most cherished possession, Secretary. Hope the King appreciates the tradition and history it carries.”</p>
<p>“The strength and power of a warrior race?” asked the daemon.</p>
<p>“It’s mostly a work of love and beauty,” Alia wore her most innocent face, “it is up to the holder to never have the need to use it and, if necessary, to use it wisely.”</p>
<p>The secretary bowed and said, “The king appreciates fine artefacts and fine minds, lady Alia.”</p>
<p>The glimpse of a smile appeared on her face. The daemon could be charming. At that moment the door in front of her opened and she almost smiled, pleased to note that her waiting had been the strictly necessary in diplomatic etiquette. Then she turned her gaze at the figure who had just stepped in and the time froze in her mind.</p>
<p>The secretary turned and announced, “Lady Alia Brigant meet the King of Great Louisiana. His Majesty, Lady Alia Brigant.”</p>
<p>Eric Northman stilled and clenched his jaw.</p>
<p>Alia stared at the vampire. The time stretched and then nervously stood in the middle of the room as an uninvited presence.</p>
<p>Latsis, his face blank, betrayed a certain uneasiness in the way his hands could not find a place to rest.</p>
<p>Alia closed her eyes. A tightness in her belly told her something she had not been prepared for had just happened. Pain, one she thought to have left behind with her past, invaded her consciousness and prevented her to think of anything else. It was as if everything had happened yesterday. She opened her eyes again and he was still there.</p>
<p>Eric stepped forward staring at the fae. His face had lost its blankness and seemed overwhelmed by different emotions, some new and unaccounted for.</p>
<p>“Sookie…?” It was a whisper, carrying longing and guilt.</p>
<p>She blinked and a weird coldness muted her feelings.</p>
<p>“Leave us,” said Eric waving a hand to his secretary.</p>
<p>Latsis slid away silently and closed the door behind him.</p>
<p>Eric’s eyes had not moved. What one could possibly say after more than forty two years of silence, guilt and craving? What one could possibly do if the past roamed back in one’s life with vicious heaviness? What one was supposed to feel if a chance presented itself wrapped in misunderstanding and regrets?</p>
<p>“Are you real?” he said finally.</p>
<p>Alia exhaled and whispered, “I don’t know.”</p>
<p>“I came back three years later, and you were gone…”</p>
<p>“Faery. I’ve been there all the time,” said Alia. Her hand was over her belly, trying to contain the burning she felt building inside.</p>
<p>“Ah, sure. Niall finally claimed you,” nodded Eric as if that explained everything, from her look to her fairyness. “You are fairy, now.” It was more a statement than a question, but he waited for a confirmation.</p>
<p>“I’ve always been one, I just had to accept it consciously.”</p>
<p>He smiled and said, “I’ve always known that.” There was tenderness and satisfaction in his voice. “Why this name…?”</p>
<p>“I’m fae now,” she said, “and Alia is the name I chose at the Awakening.”</p>
<p>“Awakening?”</p>
<p>“The rite of passage to be accepted into the fae community. It’s—” she stopped and realised what she had just said.</p>
<p>Eric smiled. “You should’ve not spoken about your traditions, I guess.”</p>
<p>She shook her head. She had been instructed thoroughly about the danger to tell anything about her fairyness and the necessity to keep a lid on all things fae, even with family or friends.</p>
<p>Then he added, “It’s all right. But I will never harm or hurt you. Nor willingly. Never.”</p>
<p>She nodded, uncertain. His appearance was unchanged. He was always very tall, with a lean, muscular body, medium length blond hair styled in a high pony tail, a barely visible blond stubble and deep blue eyes. Yet he had changed. His eyes were veined with the unkindness of time and his warm, low voice carried the same burden. His large shoulders, though, stood straight and challenging, as a warrior should always be. Chadwick would have approved. No matter what happens in life, one should always face it head on with an impeccable intent.</p>
<p>Alia smiled inside, understanding in that moment the kind of fighter her demanding swordmaster had always tried to mould out of her: not only the skilled and resolute combatant, but one who rose again after every fall, stronger and more lethal, both in the battle field and in life. She had become a valiant fighter on the arena, but what about the life field? She had thought to have moved on, but now that her past stared at her she was not sure to be enough strong and determined to face it. Maybe she had just hidden her past down,below the clatter of everyday living. Now, though, she could not avoid it. He stood in his unwavering a hundred ninety-eight centimetres frame a few steps away and would not disappear at her request. He was a king with a queen in the world she had chosen to live in again. She should face it and live it.</p>
<p>The room seemed to absorb their feelings, smoothing their edges and exuding calmness through its solidity. </p>
<p>Eric was watching the fae in front of him. Her long and unsubstantial dress made of traditional gossamer fabric embraced her softly and enhanced her fairyness. Her body was more muscular than he remembered but retained its curves and generous breasts, completing lavishly her fae weaponry: a fairy warrior hid her dangerousness in beauty and kindness. He saw the strength and the confidence in her stance, along with a streak of frailty and innocence. She had reached her potential, retaining her human core, and the vampire could not help to be proud of her. Her smell, too, had changed: more fae, sweet and enticing. Dangerous.</p>
<p>But in all his whirlwind of feelings, only one question came unanswered. “Are you happy, Sookie?”</p>
<p>Alia startled and came back from her musings. “Alia,” she murmured.</p>
<p>“Yes, Alia,” he repeated louder, “are you happy?”</p>
<p>The fae faltered and tried to remember if Chadwick had ever said anything about happiness. When nothing came to help, she lifted an eyebrow and replied, “I never thought about it.” Then locked eyes with his. “I live.”</p>
<p>Eric’s eyes did not move from hers and showed his sorrow.</p>
<p>“Are you happy, King?” she asked.</p>
<p>He swallowed and pursed his lips. “I live, too.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0022"><h2>22. Chapter 22</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Prophesy is a good line of business, but it is full of risks.</p>
<p>(<em>Mark Twain</em>,</p>
<p>American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, lecturer)</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Is this a lake or a river?” asked Cataliades annoyed by the wetness in the air and the jacket’s tightness that hindered his movements.</p>
<p>The vampire who drove the sleek hydrofoil was not in a mood to talk, the daemon had already noticed, but he was an Ancient One’s recurring guest and the pilot could not throw him overboard. The boat glided smoothly over the water surface and came to a stop in the middle of a large inlet.</p>
<p>It was the fifth time Cataliades went to that specific location to meet the Pythoness and had not liked it a single time. The fashion to dwell in mobile houses as the one which was about to rise from the waters was quite annoying in itself, and he did not hide his dislike. He recognised that a house underwater was better that those at the mercy of the winds, attached to the ground only by a cable made of dozens of smaller cables intertwined. Or than those ships that followed a low orbit course around the planet, correcting their direction with timely bursts of small propellers. Rich people always found ways to irritate other people and to show how much time they had to spend in trivial pursuits.</p>
<p>Cataliades was busy simmering and huffing when a dark figure seemed to emerge from the waters, walking toward him. The shape blurred for a few seconds, then regained its solid contours and jumped over the deck in a fluid motion.</p>
<p>“Daemon, I heard you cursing from the depth of this lake.”</p>
<p>“Pythia?” he asked narrowing his eyes to see her facial features in the lightless night.</p>
<p>“Would you have preferred an alligator?”</p>
<p>“Hardly good company, Ancient One,” Cataliades regained some of his presence of mind and bowed to the vampiress.</p>
<p>“At any rate, there are no gators here,” the old lady said with a crusty voice. “So, would you prefer cruising or descending into my abode?”</p>
<p>“If you don’t mind, let’s stay on board. There’s a nice sitting room under the deck.”</p>
<p>The vampiress’ chuckle sounded like a shrill and went down his spinal cord as an electric shock. The more time he spent with her, the more he felt a live chill in his bones. The Ancient One was not a creature one could get accustomed to. Maybe it was her considerable age, maybe the fact that her decrepit body did not behave as such or the unsettling timelessness that she exuded, most of all when she tried to be casual or humorous. She was beyond comprehension and beyond company.</p>
<p>Indeed, she lived alone with a few handmaidens who took shifts of a couple of months each. Diantha was one of them, and she enjoyed it. But the little daemon had never been one who settled for cosy and easy.</p>
<p>“Our sweet fairy has moved,” said the Pythoness sitting in front of the daemon.</p>
<p>Cataliades stood quiet, uncertain if it was a statement or a question. After a while he said, “As you required, she’s in Louisiana at the moment.”</p>
<p>“Something happened,” the vampiress continued.</p>
<p>Something always happened when his godchild was in their dimension, and by the seer’s words it seemed it had increased somehow in the last days. The daemon lawyer nodded. It was something the sybil had said many times in the last three decades, but only after some time they had understood that it was Alia’s presence the variable that spurred the abrupt changes in her visions. The fae had never stayed in Earth longer than a couple of weeks, most journeys lasting only a week. Since fifteen years, therefore, Cataliades had had to increase Alia’s commitments in the daemons’ realm and in their strongholds on Earth, as well as in fairies’ business with humans.</p>
<p>The seer had experienced strong and clear visions each time the fairy had crossed a portal and for the entire time of her stay. The Pythia, though, had never shared the true scope of her visions nor the extent of Alia’s involvement, if any at all had ever appeared. And the vampiress had no offered any related prophecy. Nevertheless, Cataliades had felt compelled to abide to her requests as a little ant worked for its ant hill without asking for explanation of its role. Or rewards.</p>
<p>“Something strong,” repeated the Pythia as if speaking to herself.</p>
<p>Humidity had infiltrated the interior of the boat covering every surface with a film of wetness. Even the air was heavy and tiny droplets of water soaked the daemon’s hair. The vampiress appeared immune to the water assault or her parchment-like skin absorbed it thoroughly. </p>
<p>“Do feelings interfere with visions?” asked Cataliades after a while.</p>
<p>“Sure. Feelings are powerful energy and,” the sybil chuckled in that ominous way of hers, “make the world go round.”</p>
<p>Cataliades was not sure whether the vampiress joked or was serious, therefore added, “I wasn’t joking, Pythoness.”</p>
<p>“Nor was I, Desmond.”</p>
<p>“Uh… well, my godchild went through several emotional states these last days,” offered the lawyer. “For the first time she came back to Earth without being flanked by fae or daemon guardians or having a work to occupy her time with. She’s just free to rediscover her world. She stayed with her brother’s family for almost a week, then a few days ago went at court as a fae—”</p>
<p>“Did she meet Northman?” interjected the vampiress with a glint in her fogged eyes.</p>
<p>“It was the purpose of the visit, obviously,” stated Cataliades matter-of-factly. </p>
<p>The Pythia smiled and the daemon instinctively retreated back in his chair. Her smile was not friendly nor mirthful, it was just a teeth exposure. And her teeth were not a cordial sight. It made the daemon think of hungry wolves or yawning alligators. The only reason he did not run away was that his blood was disgusting and mildly toxic for vampires and they knew it.</p>
<p>“It explains a lot, then,” mumbled the vampiress.</p>
<p>“I’m sorry to shatter your line of thoughts but they moved on. Both of them. Time and life went on and they found other partners,” Cataliades clasped his hands over the large belly he sported and continued. “Alia had many lovers in Faery and outside, not to mention her on-off affair with her cousin, and never asked me of Northman. Not once.” The daemon seemed to consider all the information at his disposal and confirmed his words with a hands’ gesture. “Northman is happily married with a formidable vampiress and enjoys a healthy sexual life even outside of his marriage, as customary among your kind.”</p>
<p>The Pythia listened attentively and nodded.</p>
<p>“Definitely no chances of any reunion,” concluded the daemon to his satisfaction.</p>
<p>The vampiress, her eyes closed, slid into whatever place she went when she pondered deeply about something, or when a vision interfered with her reality. Cataliades had observed many times the vampire downtime, that peculiar state in which they found a deeper concentration or reviewed some episodes of their life or simply rested in an alerted frame of mind. With the seer it was different. She appeared dispossessed of her consciousness, her body left inanimate but, without any warning, she would open her misty eyes and continue a conversation as if she had always been there, aware.</p>
<p>“And what about Northman, did he ever ask you about his first wife?” asked the vampiress.</p>
<p>Cataliades thought about it then answered, “Not that I remember. No, definitely no.”</p>
<p>“Does he know you are her godfather… and what you did to her?”</p>
<p>The daemon startled and stammered a little. “What— what— what do you mean, Pythia?”</p>
<p>“Oh, Desmond,” the vampiress waved a scrawny hand and smiled her threatening smile, “wouldn’t you think I didn’t know of your precious few drops of blood for Fintan and his lover, and for your godchild…”</p>
<p>Cataliades gaped at the vampiress and felt his face reddening and burning from inside. “Northman knows nothing of it.”</p>
<p>The Pythia nodded, then paused. “There’s been a surge in my visions thispast week. Not only in number but in intensity… and clarity…”</p>
<p>“So,” the daemon did not know how to frame the question exactly, “is it clear where we’re heading?”</p>
<p>“No, Desmond,” the seer seemed almost sad, “it does not work so… easily. I’m immersed in time, it’s around me, everywhere. I see things, persons, actions, but not stories, not definite paths. Just opportunities. Moments.”</p>
<p>He nodded.</p>
<p>“Do you remember that peculiar device you retrieved for me forty-five years ago?” asked the Ancient One after a while.</p>
<p>“The box in Oklahoma’s coffers?” Cataliades frowned in the effort to remember more details.</p>
<p>“Mmm,” the vampiress nodded, “it’s a recording contraption, unknown origin, partially broken, it took us some years to… unfold its secrets.”</p>
<p>“Has it to do with our situation…?”</p>
<p>“I don’t know. The only link I see is that… when we finally had a taste of the content… visions had a spike… in number, intensity… strength…”</p>
<p>“As you experience now?”</p>
<p>“Seemingly.”</p>
<p>“Is there something related?”</p>
<p>“Ah, Desmond, this I don’t know,” the Pythia bent her head sideways, left and right, as to relax her neck. “What I know is that you should increase the chances of encounters between Alia and Northman. Just a little.”</p>
<p>Cataliades shook his head and turned his palms upside in a gesture of resignation.</p>
<p>“Daemon, I’ve got to understand if this changes our… opportunities, andwhich way it would take us.”</p>
<p>“Yes, Pythia. I can do that.”</p>
<p>“Lightly, just a little prodding. If it means anything for us it will gather momentum of its own, then we’ll see to it…”</p>
<p>“What if—”</p>
<p>“I will continue to explore the sea of time, and hope not to drown…”</p>
<p>Cataliades felt that their meeting was coming to an end. He stood up and waited to be dismissed.</p>
<p>“If something happens, I’ll call for you, Desmond…” the Pythia stood up and reached the stairs to the deck, the action light and effortless so at odds with her aged body. “Time is a critical variable, you know. But the good news is that there’s a lot of it. Maybe, not for all of us, though.”</p>
<p>The Ancient One disappeared in the night, leaving the daemon soaked in the watery air. Unsatisfied.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0023"><h2>23. Chapter 23</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Fangtasia did not exist any more.</p>
<p>Alia certainly did not miss it. Yet the fact that it was not there anymore struck her as incongruous. And, however, the fact that it was gone was another sign of how long or far life had travelled since her previous life. To be precise, all the neighbourhood did not exist any more: what was in its place was an upmarket district with quiet apartment buildings, posh boutiques, expensive restaurants with renown international chefs.</p>
<p>The popular vampire bar had been replaced by an elegant building whose owner, the former sheriff Pamela Ravenscroft, had started a new business with her sister, Karin the Slaughterer, that included a sophisticated restaurant of synthetic food (the first to be opened in town in 2031), a luxurious spa with exclusive vampire anti-age treatments (any service or object labelled <em>vampire</em> in any fashion was an instant success and allowed for double the price), an opulent gym with anti-gravity chambers and a few fashion stores. Some apartments were reserved for important vampire guests and Area Five head quarters (which now included also former Area Four). The new sheriff was a white Indian vampiress known simply as India, Alia had discovered in the files her godfather had supplied.</p>
<p>Alia’s flytaxi landed on the roof of the building and the fae sensed immediately her friend’s mindprint: Pamela was standing at the right side of the landing pad, her light coat floating behind her.</p>
<p>The fairy hugged her friend before the vampiress could complain and smiled noticing how strongly she responded to her embrace. </p>
<p>“My favourite breather,” Pamela whispered.</p>
<p>“Pam,” Alia said with eyes full of unshed tears, “I missed you terribly.”</p>
<p>“Oh, hey, I left you weeping more than forty years ago and I—”</p>
<p>“But this is joy,” Alia grinned, “this is joy!”</p>
<p>“You stop that right now,” Pamela replied wiping her own single tear. “Shit, I must’ve become a fucking old bitch.”</p>
<p>“Just a bitch, Pam,” Alia giggled, “you did not get old, maybe less bitch?”</p>
<p>“Hopefully not,” the vampiress led the way inside the building, “you know, I practise a lot.”</p>
<p>“Diantha told me you’re regent in Arkansas, now.”</p>
<p>“It’s been more than thirty-eight years, now.” Pamela reached a door flanked by two vampires who straightened at her arrival and opened the entrance to a richly furnished flat. The entrance hall was full of vampires in elegant attire and they stood to attention at the Regent’s sight, silencing and clearing a path for the two females.</p>
<p>They walked through a series of corridors, then entered a room with dark violet curtains and matched seatings, opulent rugs and dark wood furnishings.</p>
<p>“What is it this place?” asked Alia sitting on a sofa.</p>
<p>“Where I come when in town,” the vampiress gestured to a door, “just a few rooms. This duplex is Area Five headquarters. Did you meet the sheriff?”</p>
<p>“Not yet.”</p>
<p>“She’s holding a hearing now,” informed Pamela sitting at her side, “I’ll introduce you afterward.” Then the vampiress took a lengthy look at her friend and said, “I guess you’ve got a tale to tell, right? Forty years of tales and… a little explanation wouldn’t hurt either.”</p>
<p>“Much less than forty years, I’m afraid,” started Alia. “I was in Faery all this time, slightly more than eight years for me. You know, there’s a time lag.”</p>
<p>“I heard of it, but didn’t know it was so much. Carry on… what about your new name? You lost yours?” Pamela’s tone light and amused.</p>
<p>“Sort of,” Alia quipped in turn. “When I fully accepted my fae nature and my kin, I had to find a new name for what I had become.”</p>
<p>“A full fae, by the look of it,” said Pamela and laughed knowingly. “And it was about time, my friend. What about your look? Your tits for instance, are they new too?”</p>
<p>“Pam!” Alia feigned an offended expression.</p>
<p>“I swear they are perkier than ever, they even look willing to be touched. May I oblige?”</p>
<p>Alia giggled and offered an amended version of what had happened to her essence. “Embracing my faeness and living in Faery changed me in many ways. My body, my mind, my attitude toward life and myself. It’s been a time of learning and discoveries, but,” she cackled, then paused and continued mockingly, “my tits are still the original product of this southern land, unadulterated and silver-free!”</p>
<p>“The right fare for these teeth, then,” countered Pamela managing to drop her fangs and laugh at once.</p>
<p>“I’ll think about your offer,” Alia mimicked a pensive pose. “I never tasted a female…”</p>
<p>“It’s definitely time to broaden up your horizons, fae.”</p>
<p>“Oh, I really missed you, Pam. Even your wicked humour,” Alia said watching the vampiress with tenderness.</p>
<p>“I haven’t yet made a single joke tonight,” said Pamela retracting her canines. “And I hate to say that I missed you too. A lot. Shit, I said it.”</p>
<p>“I made new friends, you know. But no one has the ability to cheer me up like you, with your mere presence. You’re a breath of fresh air, and a warm laugh in times of need.”</p>
<p>“Are you in a time of need?”</p>
<p>“Always. For a drink and a chat. A fashion counsellor. A sparring partner. A travelling companion.”</p>
<p>“A fashion counsellor you need desperately!” Pamela indicated her clothes in a horrified way. “What are you wearing, for instance?”</p>
<p>“Fae clothing, obviously,” Alia’s eyes glinted with mirth. “And I have two trunks full of them!”</p>
<p>Pamela touched the hem of the fae’s robe, assessed its weight and texture and said: “The material is amazing, the design is old fashioned but could have its use mixed with something current. But you’re just gorgeous in it.”</p>
<p>“Flattery doesn’t get you closer to my tits, Pam,” countered Alia.</p>
<p>“It’s true. It’s probably that fucking charming allure that you fairies inherit with your intoxicating smell,” Pamela huffed. “What about your smell? And what about your hair?”</p>
<p>“I can conceal my smell completely, now,” said the fae biting her bottom lip. “My hair? I styled it the fae way…”</p>
<p>“Fuck, Sookie,” Pamela scolded her half jokingly, “you can’t drop here, entice me with your newly acquired fucking fae charming skills, and not letting me taste at least one of the two.” Pamela was clearly eyeing the fae’s breasts and her teasing was not so light-hearted any more.</p>
<p>Alia frowned but played along some more. “Oh Pam, do not yield so easily. I’ve not really tried with you and I like foreplay more than the play itself. Resist me some, maybe you’ll provoke the hunter in me…”</p>
<p>“Is there a hunter in you?”</p>
<p>“I don’t really know all the mess that’s inside of me. I discovered I like fighting, playing some games, and some quirks… maybe I’ve got a hunter who still waits to be discovered, who knows?” </p>
<p>“Yes, you’re more than changed. There are other—”</p>
<p>“A lot of <em>other</em>, believe me Pam,” interjected the fae. “Now, tell me what a regent for Arkansas does in Shreveport, introduce me to the new sheriff and to these new premises risen from Fangtasia’s ashes. I’m here to discover again this world.”</p>
<p>“Fuck! I could even like more this updated version of Sookie. Let’s go to meet India,” said Pamela and stood up heading to the door.</p>
<p>The vampiress walked the large flat with the confident gait of one accustomed to wield the power and, although less tall than Alia, she towered in fortitude and positiveness. The fae followed her friend watching unobtrusively the demeanour of the vampires they crossed, their careful and quieted manners, their respectful eagerness to please her. The Regent of Arkansas was admired and feared, and oblivious to it all. </p>
<p>Pamela introduced the sheriff of Area Five at the end of an hearing about a vampire who had refused to turn his employee, despite an agreement to do so after fifteen satisfactory years of service. Alia entered the hearing hall while the man pleading his case recounted his flawless state of service and listed all the responsibilities assumed and duties performed in his career of assistant to the judge he had served faithfully. The vampire, it was cleared through the words of his employee, had not come out and no human knew of his nature.</p>
<p>The sheriff, a Brahmin woman in her late twenties, had a fair completion, bright green eyes and black thick hair. Her silky saree sported the same colours, but her pale skin did not benefit from the pairing, and her overall appearance was closer to a doll than a living creature. India listened dispassionately to the long denunciation and, at the end, ruled against the man on the assumption the contract was contrary to vampire law. Turning, in fact, was a personal non transferable right of the individual vampire to be exercised unrestrained, in complete independence (save for the maker or monarch right to suspend it). Therefore, the said contract could not be binding and the choice of turning or not was always vampire’s. The man was led out of the hall and the vampire was fined for having deceived the human with an invalid agreement.</p>
<p>Alia, perplexed by the content of the case, noticed a feeling of uneasiness in her consciousness’ periphery. The dispute was over in less than ten minutes but her guts did not register the change of subject and, as the sheriff acknowledged her presence and slightly adjusted her facial expression, bending upward her lips in a parody of a smile, Alia rolled the man’s words in her mind for a long time afterward.</p>
<p>If Pamela noticed Alia’s thoughtfulness, she did not hint at it and took her to the restaurant called <em>OnceWasFangtasia</em>, in the very ground that once hosted her club, and recounted the many previous transformations of the vampire bar. They then visited the spa (<em>Reborning Vampire Club</em>) and the exclusive boutiques in the premises, where the vampiress introduced Alia as a personal friend. The puzzled look of the vampire personnel, and their ill concealed craving, told Alia a dangerous truth: even without the delectable fae scent, vampires perceived her non human nature and were attracted in an unsettling way.</p>
<p>Heading back to the sheriff’s headquarters, Pamela was listing all the venue they could finish the night in when the passageway resonated with the voice, rich in warning undertones, of the king of Great Louisiana.</p>
<p>“Where’s your tablet, child?”</p>
<p>The sound discharged its vibrations directly into Alia’s gut. Pamela turned amused at the interruption, and greeted her maker.</p>
<p>“Eric, what a surprise!”</p>
<p>Alia turned and nodded acknowledging his presence.</p>
<p>“Sookie,” Eric stalled slightly, then focused on his progeny and continued. “Not really, given that I sent you a request for anticipating our meeting.”</p>
<p>“I’m sorry, I must’ve missed it,” Pamela’s voice reverted to a business-like tone matching that of her maker. “I came to Shreveport to meet with Sookie, can we adjourn in an hour? I was taking Sookie out. Or better, join us and then we’ll have our meeting.”</p>
<p>Alia’s voice preceded her thinking. “I don’t want to impose on you and work comes first, obviously.” Her frozen smile broke just the time to say another sentence, then resumed. “Pam, we’ll go out next time. It’s been really good to see you. Let me know when you’re in town again, I come here quite often…”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>When Pamela came back to her office, she found a puzzled king on the sofa.</p>
<p>“The fae told me you two met more than a week ago. How did it go?”</p>
<p>Eric frowned and shook his head. “I don’t know.”</p>
<p>Pamela sat at his side. “Do you intend to pursue her?”</p>
<p>Eric lifted a brow and said, “I don’t think it’s that simple, Pam.”</p>
<p>“What is not simple? You pursuing her or your willingness to do so?”</p>
<p>“Both, I guess,” said Eric.</p>
<p>“Make up your mind soon, then,” Pamela suggested nonchalantly. “She attracts attention. Someone could think to court her…”</p>
<p>Eric was silent for a while. Then he stood up and went to a window: the little city landscape visible from the limited height of the building glittered in the night. “She’s free to do as she wishes. It’s up to her the choice,” he turned to the vampiress with an enigmatic smile. “I’ll carry on my life as usual.”</p>
<p>Pamela retrieved her tablet and unfolded it. “I’m not sure to have understood.”</p>
<p>“Oh, neither did I,” replied Eric. “Let me hear how it’s faring our venture up in the Arkansan mountains, child. Let’s stick to what we can direct.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Cataliades firm’s headquarters in New Orleans occupied an entire building of the new business district facing the Lake Pontchartrain and its causeway, built anew in 2032. From the little corner room of her office Alia could see the setting of Earth’s star and the lit road over the lake. The night seemed always more lively than the day.</p>
<p>Her godfather had asked her what had happened at the royal audience almost ten days earlier and appeared disappointed to know that she had been quite surprised at the king’s identity.</p>
<p>“I left a dossier on him and his kingdom, with all the relevant facts. I’m sure it was well highlighted his name,” Cataliades observed.</p>
<p>“It’s my fault, Desmond,” explained Alia biting her lip. “I was so overwhelmed by all the novelty of the place, my brother, my nephews… I didn’t read it… sorry, I won’t make the same mistake twice.”</p>
<p>“I wouldn’t have sent you alone had I known you had… reservations on him,” said Cataliades cautiously.</p>
<p>“No, Desmond,” Alia replied, “I have nothing against him. It’s just I thought he… was still in… Oklahoma with…”</p>
<p>“Would you have preferred so, my dear?” asked the daemon.</p>
<p>“Certainly not!” Alia blurted out. “I wish him no ill…”</p>
<p>Her godfather seemed uncertain. And focused on her with unnerving determination. Alia checked her shields and noticed they were relaxed. She fought the blushing on her cheeks and lifted them.</p>
<p>“There’s no problem, Desmond, really,” said Alia shuffling through the papers on the desk, surprised at the amount of paper still used to that epoch. “Besides, the kingdom is one of your main client, so I’ll have to get used to him…”</p>
<p>“Dear, I thought you had moved on and didn’t consider—”</p>
<p>“And I have,” Alia replied without letting him completing the sentence. “It’s been just the surprise of the moment, but there’s no problem working for him. Really.”</p>
<p>Cataliades shifted his weight from a foot to the other.</p>
<p>“I’m glad to hear that, because your schedule will be quite crowded with this kingdom’s business,” the daemon finally said. “Barry’s son… do you remember Barry Horowitz?” </p>
<p>Alia nodded.</p>
<p>“Leonard Horowitz works here with us. He’s a telepath too, but not of your… power. He reads just humans, but he’s somehow prudish to use his gift and… well, he works especially with security and isn’t very fond of vampires.”</p>
<p>“And Barry?” asked Alia glad to change subject.</p>
<p>“Dead. A few years already.” Cataliades did not like to remember it, and continued briskly his overview of the work she was expected to do. “At any rate, even if Northman has the exclusive service of a good telepath, your nephew Hunter, there’s—”</p>
<p>“Hunter works for Eric?” Alia had found him mentioned in the files, but it had been a brief notation and did not explain his involvement.</p>
<p>“Yes. I did not want to write it down explicitly as I know how you recommended to protect him…” The daemon moved back and fro on the balls of his feet. “I think you’ll prefer to talk to him about it…”</p>
<p>“Desmond!” Alia said. “Say what you have to, please.”</p>
<p>“He’s in a mission for the king,” started Cataliades, “with his second-in-command and—”</p>
<p>“Karin?”</p>
<p>“Yes. They will be back shortly, I think,” the daemon seemed embarrassed. “He knows you’re here with us, and is eager to meet you again.”</p>
<p>“It will be great,” Alia said. His godfather’s behaviour was hesitant. “Is he fine, Desmond?”</p>
<p>Cataliades smiled. “Very fine, my dear. He’s happy doing what he does and enjoys… a pleasant life. But hear him out, he’ll tell you all.”</p>
<p>“I certainly will,” the fae nodded.</p>
<p>“Now,” Cataliades resumed his business-like attitude, “your first assignment is in Denver, next week.”</p>
<p>“Denver? It sounds déjà vu…”</p>
<p>“What do—”</p>
<p>“Nothing, just a memory,” Alia had a vision of a silver bullet she had extracted from a certain chest and blushed, cursing mentally her stupid mind and its untimely recollections. “So, Denver. Where’s the dossier?”</p>
<p>As Cataliades left the fae browsed through papers and videos, wondering what her godfather had not said. It was not the first time he had seemed reticent, but she could not hold it against him. Everybody had his motives. Or his fears.</p>
<p>And delving in others’ minds was not always a good solution. More often than not it ended up with more questions than answers.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Rehema!” Eric exclaimed as his wife entered his study.</p>
<p>“I know, I know.” The vampiress rounded his desk and reached out to his hand. “You seemed so distressed over the phone, and Cillian needed to come to New Orleans for some of his business. So I’m here.”</p>
<p>“I’m not a damsel in distress, Rehema.” The black vampiress was the only person, besides his children, to whom he let see his weakness. It was dangerous, among long living creatures, exposing any soft side. Today’s friend could become tomorrow’s foe. But he had accepted the risk.</p>
<p>“And I’m not exactly your knight,” she said quietly. “Sometimes, though, even a twelve hundreds years old child needs a shoulder to lean on.”</p>
<p>“And yours is always welcome,” said Eric, “but there’s really nothing to—”</p>
<p>“Eric,” the vampiress interjected staring at him with a hint of a smile. When they had become friends, he had recounted to her some of his life, starting from Nevada’s takeover of Louisiana to Ocella’s coming and Freyda’s forced marriage. Obviously, his love for a human had featured prominently in his tale, mainly as a mistake and a weakness on his part.</p>
<p>Eric stood up and went to a cupboard. “Water? Blood?”</p>
<p>“Water, please,” said Rehema sitting on a plush armchair.</p>
<p>Eric offered her a glass of water and, sipping from his, sat down at her side. “There isn’t much to say. Sookie’s back in Louisiana and… well, she’s not the old lady she was expected to be.” The vampire sighed and carried on. “Somehow she really became fae. And there’s something about her… she’s different, not only the fae thing.”</p>
<p>“Forty years never pass by without change, Eric,” Rehema noted.</p>
<p>“She was in Faery, slightly more than eight years for her.”</p>
<p>“Oh,” the vampiress smiled. “Tell me the important things, Eric, not these inconsequentialities.”</p>
<p>Eric closed his eyes as to recall her image. “She was surprised to see me. Didn’t know I was the king. And she was in pain… her hand ran to her belly as soon as she realised it was me, and she was not happy. Pain, that’s what I stir in her.”</p>
<p>“To be expected given what happened to you two the last time you met,” Rehema said.</p>
<p>Eric nodded and was silent for a while. “She called me king.”</p>
<p>“That’s who you are.”</p>
<p>“Not to her, Rehema. It’s been a way to put a distance between us.”</p>
<p>“Possibly. She has to defend herself.”</p>
<p>“I won’t ever harm, hurt her,” he said wincing.</p>
<p>“You already have. And she is still in pain for that… you said so.”</p>
<p>“I had no choices, Rehema, no choices that included her wellbeing.”</p>
<p>“I doubt she sees things in the same way, then.”</p>
<p>“Her smell…” he mused distant.</p>
<p>Rehema waited silently.</p>
<p>“Her smell is different,” Eric kept his eyes closed and a faint smile appeared on his lips. “At the beginning nothing, no smell at all. Then it was there, more sweet and enticing than ever, more fae. And then, it was gone again.”</p>
<p>“I heard some fairies can mask their scent pretty well.”</p>
<p>“Yes, she has probably learnt to do so. Pam confirmed she did not smell at all the night they met. Not even as human.” Eric inhaled trying to smell again her fragrance. “Pam told she was frisky and playful with her, and that she almost convinced her to offer a breast to kiss.”</p>
<p>“Pam can be a pain…”</p>
<p>“Maybe it was just Pam’s twisted interpretation of her jokes.” Eric said. “But the point is that with her she joked, with me she felt just pain. When I found her in Shreveport she couldn’t get away faster…”</p>
<p>“Pam was a friend, you were a husband, even if not openly accepted,” Rehema said. “But, instead, tell me what you felt…”</p>
<p>“Guilt. Mostly guilt. And longing… desire for something that… I’m glad she let her true nature come out…”</p>
<p>“What do you want to do, Eric?”</p>
<p>“I asked her if she was happy, and she said ‘I live’.”</p>
<p>Rehema waited, then repeated. “What do you want to do?”</p>
<p>“I don’t know. I made many mistakes with her. I don’t know if she’ll give me another chance.” He watched Rehema shaking his head, “I don’t know if I’ll take another chance.”</p>
<p>Eric poured some more water and drank. He was nervous and doing nothing to mask it. “I don’t really know. It’s not been easy for me either. And meeting her has showed just how much I’m still… I… don’t know.”</p>
<p>The vampiress crossed her long legs covered by a loose robe and set to wait as long as Eric needed to find himself among his doubts.</p>
<p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0024"><h2>24. Chapter 24</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Even if you’re going to live three thousand more years, or ten times that, remember: you cannot lose another life than the one you’re living now, or live another one than the one you’re losing. The longest amounts to the same as the shortest. The present is the same for everyone; its loss is the same for everyone; and it should be clear that a brief instant is all that is lost. For you can’t lose either the past or the future; how could you lose what you don’t have?</p>
<p>Remember two things:</p>
<p>i. that everything has always been the same, and keeps recurring, and it makes no difference whether you see the same things recur in a hundred years or two hundred, or in an infinite period;</p>
<p>ii. that the longest-lived and those who will die soonest lose the same thing. The present is all that they can give up, since that is all you have, and what you do not have, you cannot lose.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>(<em>Excerpt from The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus,</em><em>book 2, chapter 14</em>)</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Alia watched the tall vampire who stared at her with a quizzical expression. The king of Colorado was of Chinese descent with some caucasian interference, his perfect face a fine sample of what a good genetic concoction could attain.</p>
<p>“A Brigant, uh?” Hu Ke Xu asked smiling. “What they say about you, is it true? And what about your scent?”</p>
<p>“If they say I’m good at what I do, they’re right, sir,” Alia answered with a little smile. “As for my scent, I heard vampires can’t stand it therefore, as a form of courtesy, I refrain from using it.”</p>
<p>The vampire bursted into a heavy laugh that filled the room and attracted some attention. “A delicious fae with a sense of humour… mmm… dangerous…”</p>
<p>“I’m quite inoffensive,” Alia proffered seriously, “if not challenged.”</p>
<p>“I think I like you,” Xu countered with a light nod, “and in my kingdom no one will challenge you, lady Alia.”</p>
<p>The fae bowed in turn and opened her mind to listen to the general mood of the little human retinue crowding the formal sitting room of the king’s residence. Yet, the first feelings to parade in front of her were those coming from the vampire. They were a bit clouded but mirrored his words. Appreciation, amusement, determination.</p>
<p>Alia kept her face blank but a surge of apprehension enveloped her guts. It had never happened before to hear vampire emotional states so strongly, if not Eric’s through their bond. Or a few stray thoughts. Just once or twice.</p>
<p>Leonard and Alia had arrived one day earlier and had already scanned all the human employees. Two seemed heavily glamoured and one was thinking to resign, but Leonard could not find more to dig into. Alia had mentally noted to check again, just to understand his colleague’s reading level, and reliability. That night they had met with the king’s counterparts in the series of agreements they were to sign. Synthetic foods and satellite surveillance.</p>
<p>Alia had thoroughly read all the drafts to know what to look for in the human staff surrounding the third parties, and their daemon lawyer. Nothing relevant emerged and she left the meeting room during a coffee/blood break to find the ladies room.</p>
<p>It was around two in the morning and she was refreshing her face when it happened. It was a sudden blow through her mind, almost blinding. Then a flow of thoughts, incoherent and jumbled. Mixed with feelings of boredom or hassle.</p>
<p>
  <em>So boring… hope the way things are going changes soon… I don’t understand what… keeping tabs on Nevada… though, her breasts are enticing… Nevada is really feckless, where does he put all the money… it’s quite useless now… fuck, the robe was to loose to see her ass… why he needs to keep him afloat… maybe useful again… no smell at all…</em>
</p>
<p>Alia stilled. Those thoughts were not human’s. Sharper and deeper than human’s. Stronger. With a red flare, she could not describe in other words the sensation she felt. The clear image of Colorado hanging in between.</p>
<p>They were vampire’s.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>I’m back and dying to see you. Meet me at Dark Nights. 21h. Love, K</em>
</p>
<p>Alia had been in New Orleans more than a month and had not yet ventured into the neworleanian nightlife which, they said, was more lively than its day counterpart.</p>
<p>Usually she spent a couple of days a week in Shreveport, visiting her brother and nephews, and Pamela when her duties allowed her. Alia had also bought a flycar and had just finished her crash course in how-not-to-risk-your-life-and-others’ (her niece called so her three-day premium course) while driving it. Mostly it was a take off/land training, given that the cruising part was entirely automated and the onboard computer checked in with traffic control system every few seconds.</p>
<p>Around nine’o clock Alia landed in the reserved parking area of <em>Dark Nights</em> and strode into the entrance hall with a burgeoning excitement that appeared in her face as a barely held back grin. Her outfit was Pam-approved although totally fae but, as she stopped at the receiving desk to ask for her friend’s booking, she knew she was sticking out like a sore thumb. Pamela and her vicious humour would pay in kind for this little stunt.</p>
<p>“Aunt Sookie,” said a dark blond man in his thirties, “miracles are a great invention!” He was taller than Alia by a few centimetres and sported a pair of warm blue eyes the same shade of hers.</p>
<p>Alia was about to ask his identity when her mind caught his following comment. “<em>And you’re more beautiful than I remember</em>.”</p>
<p>Immediately she felt the familiar mindprint of her cousin’s child and ran into him with open arms. “<em>Hunter, I… I… I think I’m going to cry for awhile.</em>”</p>
<p>“You grew up… so much!” Alia managed to say wiping her face and keeping Hunter in a tight embrace.</p>
<p>“It happens with time,” he chuckled, and added, “<em>Not to everybody, though. You should be a lively old lady by now…</em>”</p>
<p>“And you a middle aged man,” she retorted grinning.</p>
<p>“My wife takes care of that, Sookie,” Hunter explained smiling. “<em>What’s your excuse?</em>”</p>
<p>Alia gaped at the sight of the image Hunter was proudly projecting, and a little cough at her side made her turn.</p>
<p>“Enough, blondie,” Karin quipped, “get your hands off my husband.”</p>
<p>“Karin!” Alia embraced her friend and could not help to cry some more.</p>
<p>“What a weeper, you haven’t learnt much with age,” the vampiress eyes were swollen with tears but her grin said it all.</p>
<p>The rest of the night passed in a blur of memories and emotions. Alia offered her amended version of eight years in Faery, and Hunter recounted how he had met Karin and chased her merciless till she yielded, eighteen years ago. How Cataliades had helped him with his telepathy and taught all kind of techniques to burst his gift and shielding his mind at the same time. How he worked for his wife’s maker and enjoyed greatly his job and the opportunities it gave him. In fact, they had just come back from Earth Three (a space station in a geostationary course around the Earth) and the experience had been mind boggling.</p>
<p>Hunter reminded Alia the joyful child she knew long time ago, and his freshness was overwhelming and contagious. As the joy between him and the vampiress.</p>
<p>“How long have you been married?”</p>
<p>“Ten years in a few months,” said Karin.</p>
<p>“And we’ll celebrate in an unforgettable way,” added Hunter squeezing his wife’s hand.</p>
<p>Alia smiled, even when dark tendrils of guilt and regret tightened her guts. She had experienced moments of joy in another life, but had refused to live them completely. What was wrong with her? </p>
<p>“I’m ready to be turned,” Hunter announced staring at Karin, “and we’ll do it for our anniversary. I don’t want her to live without me!”</p>
<p>Alia had seen it coming but the concreteness carried by his words struck her deeply. Now her guts were experiencing a life of their own cramping with twinges of guilt. Tears ran through her face without her noticing them.</p>
<p>“Sookie, what is—” Karin started.</p>
<p>“I’m so happy for… for you two, it’s… it’s…” Alia stuttered. “Sorry.” She stood up and left the dining hall in a hurry. Her legs were heavy. She found the ladies room in a lateral passageway and staggered inside. She paused leaning at the wall. Her face in the mirror looked lost. Like a kid on her way out of school finding out there was no one there to pick her up.</p>
<p>When she finally calmed herself Karin was at her side, silent.</p>
<p>“I’m sorry, Karin,” Alia wiped her face clean as much as she could. “I don’t know what happened. It’s me, nothing to do with you.”</p>
<p>The vampiress nodded.</p>
<p>“I’m sorry. I was fine,” Alia tried to review her behaviour in hindsight, “then I felt I couldn’t…”</p>
<p>“Was it the… turning thing?”</p>
<p>Alia shrugged. “I felt… guilt and…”</p>
<p>Karin hugged the fae and said, “It’s ten years I’m asking Hunter to let me turn him. But he needed time. It’s not a decision to make lightly…”</p>
<p>Alia’s gaze was low.</p>
<p>“You needed time, but there wasn’t enough…”</p>
<p>“I don’t know, Karin,” Alia said lifting her eyes, “and now it doesn’t matter any more.”</p>
<p>“I disagree, Sookie,” the vampiress caressed her shoulder.</p>
<p>“I’m full fae, now,” said Alia. “I’ll live a long life.”</p>
<p>“That’s not the point, fae,” said the vampiress, “it’s the fact that after so much time you haven’t yet come to terms with what happened…”</p>
<p>“Neither that matters any more… the past doesn’t change. It’s gone.”</p>
<p>“It does. It always does,” Karin took a towel and wiped the mascara smeared around the fae’s eyes. “But you cry today then it’s today’s issue. The heart of the matter is what you want, and what you do with what you want.”</p>
<p>“I’ve got no magic wand for changing people’s feelings or actions,” Alia snapped angrily. “It’s not a matter of my sole will, I—”</p>
<p>“No, sure,” Karin replied, “you do what makes you at peace with yourself now, other people do whatever suits them, possibly to find their peace of mind.”</p>
<p>“Karin,” Alia started, “the first problem is that I really don’t know what I want…”</p>
<p>“That’s a beginning. Now you know that you have to discover what you want today. Not yesterday or any other time. Today.”</p>
<p>Alia watched her friend and asked, “How old are you?”</p>
<p>“Four hundred fifty one.”</p>
<p>“Then, I have some time to catch up with you, uh?”</p>
<p>“No one has time to waste, not even long living creatures, ‘cause we lose the same limited time, our present, for today is all we have.” Karin smiled. “Spend your present to catch up with yourself, and by the way find out what it is that you want. For today.”</p>
<p>After a while the vampiress added: “I lost a lot of time I didn’t know I had to find myself. You’re smarter than that and will do me the favour not to lose yours. I don’t know how much longer I’ll be around and I’d like to dine peacefully with you and my husband.”</p>
<p>“I’m sorry to have ruined your night, I—”</p>
<p>“You ruined nothing but you make-up, fae,” said Karin, “now let’s go back to the table. You still have to taste that delicious dessert…”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Alia found out that working was a welcomed distraction from her head, and a pleasure in itself. Studying too. Learning what had happened during her leave in the little corner of the world she lived now was useful and fascinating, especially the way her godfather presented it. She devoted equal time and attention to browse through the history written by humans, the reports written by daemons, the documents signed by vampires. The world became a more varied and interesting place to live into.</p>
<p>The assignments coming from the court were mostly carried out with Leonard or Hunter, and often the regent of Arkansas or the king’s second-in-command were present. The amount and variety of business the little vampire state was involved in astounded Alia and made her question the real extension of its reach.</p>
<p>“Dearest, do not confuse the limited geographical size of Great Louisiana with the wider interests of the vampire politics that originates from here. Vampires, as daemons and fairies, do think on a different plane than that of humans. But you already noticed it, didn’t you?” Cataliades visibly enjoyed to spend some afternoons with Alia over a good meal and a generous glass of wine.</p>
<p>“Sure, but it seems a far-reaching programme, too wide to involve only this kingdom.”</p>
<p>“In fact, this kingdom,” the daemon avoided to name the king in personal conversations, “has many allies, co-partners, external collaborators, and even unknown benefactors. Louisiana, and a group of other American kingdoms well knitted together, along with some European and Asiatic kingdoms, is paving the way for a wealthy future that spans centuries and overlooks… planets.”</p>
<p>“Fairies are collaborating with vampires?” asked Alia surprised.</p>
<p>“Fairies are long living creatures who want to seat at the main table tomorrow, as well as daemons. If vampires run ahead, it’s better to be their allies than enemies. War is always harder and has the tendency to exhaust -in a definitive way- all the parties involved. Someone noticed that and tried to steer the helm of fae politics.”</p>
<p>“Is that the reason Niall fell out of grace?”</p>
<p>“You tell me. You were there,” challenged the daemon.</p>
<p>Alia blushed. “I was learning to be fae and stood out of the game, mostly.”</p>
<p>“But I’m sure you noticed some… moves.”</p>
<p>The fae hesitated. She had participated to several formal and less formal meetings, among fairies and other creatures (mostly daemons and humans), but had always focused on the topic at hand in the moment. Now that she mentally retraced the short history she had witnessed and lived, a sketchy scheme appeared in front of her. Braendon’s faction, which had advocated closed portals, involved a small number of minor houses (mostly water fairies) and, as soon as he had died, the prevailing majority opted for a continuous exchange with Earth, and humans specifically. In hindsight, what that minority group had pursued was supremacy in Faery, over Earth and Sky Fairies. The main mistake Niall had made was listening to the wiles of that same defeated group and close the portals.</p>
<p>Discontent and unrest, even if muffled and underground, had been harnessed by Dillon, who had manoeuvred carefully to undermine Niall’s power, leaving him with a shell of a throne. However, Alia could not see the exact role of Aengus in that strategy. His duty seemed that of a liaison officer with daemons and humans. But he had always been elusive about his commitments and Alia’s little interest had not helped to see through them.</p>
<p>What was clear was that the Sky Fairies, even if formally bowing to a sort of democracy among the clans, had retained all the actual power. She had clearly seen it in all the interactions with fairies, daemons and humans. Yet, there was still something that evaded her picture. Was Niall really defeated? What about Dermot and his marginal role, if any at all?</p>
<p>“What I can say is that Niall stepped down, willing or not I don’t know,” said Alia after a lengthy pause.</p>
<p>“Interesting,” the daemon mused, “is he regrouping, you think?”</p>
<p>“I don’t know, but I would consider his defeat too swift and… not really fought on his part,” said Alia.</p>
<p>“Some analysts say he’s not definitely out, just stepped aside to better see his opponents and fight them from the back.”</p>
<p>“Analysts?”</p>
<p>“What happens in Faery can have consequences in daemon business and vampire’s too,” observed Cataliades. “And your moves will be closely watched.”</p>
<p>“My moves?” Alia sat straighter and watched the daemon. “I’m completely out and uninterested in fae little games.”</p>
<p>“Oh, but fae politics is interested in you,” Cataliades smiled and sipped the french wine in his glass. “This is the real thing, is it?”</p>
<p>Alia stared at her godfather. “You’re not helping me, Desmond.”</p>
<p>“I am, dearest,” said Cataliades lifting his glass and watching through the red liquid inside. “At least I’m trying. But neither I know exactly what is happening in Faery. Observations, speculations, hypothesis, that’s all I have.”</p>
<p>“Now, is the lawyer or the daemon talking?” </p>
<p>“They’re inextricably linked, Alia,” offered Cataliades, “but mostly, we all need to know where to put our money, and understand whom we are working with.”</p>
<p>Alia paused. Her thoughts swirled. Many voices all at once. She could not pick up a line to follow and her anxiety soared.</p>
<p>“It’s me who decided to go to Faery, Niall didn’t event want me around, you know,” Alia proffered. “Do you remember that, don’t you?”</p>
<p>“Dillon welcomed you, maybe plans were adjusted then.”</p>
<p>“Would you like some more wine?” Alia poured wine for both, watching the dark red liquid sloshing gently around the sides of the glass. It seemed venous blood. It excited her.</p>
<p>“My child,” Cataliades lifted his glass and watched the fae through it. “I didn’t want to upset you. A toast to your new life here, let it be a journey of joy and love.”</p>
<p>Cataliades clinked his glass against Alia’s and drank avidly.</p>
<p>She paused with her glass mid-air, perplexed, with the incongruous sensation of a warm tongue licking her throat.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Alia suspected Diantha had a lover.</p>
<p>The little daemon showed less and less for dinner and appeared more perky than ever those times she stayed at home.</p>
<p>Alia had arrived in town almost three months ago and they had made a deal over their lodgings: the fae would stay at Diantha’s when in New Orleans and the daemon would stay at Alia’s when in Shreveport. In fact, the fae had rented a flat in the fifth floor over <em>OnceWasFangtasia</em>, courtesy of the sheriff of Area Five, and stayed there when visiting her brother.</p>
<p>The fae was back to New Orleans after a few days in Wyoming with Cataliades, for a daemon/fairy meeting, as assistant to Dillon whose title had become Appointed Delegate of the Triumvirate, meaning he was now the leading figure among all clans. Her grasp of the fairy political scene had not improved, but she had enjoyed a couple of interesting nights with a daemon of remarkable tastes.</p>
<p>Diantha was not home and Alia appreciated the loneliness of the afternoon, sunbathing in the garden and reading a contemporary novel. She did not like the story, nor the characters or the implied moral (more or less that a person could never truly change but only sink deeper into her flaws), but she was fascinated by the language. English had changed so much in forty years and tastedsomehow foreign: the peculiarity of a living idiom. In the last eight or so years she had spoken mainly fae, the English language reserved to tantrums with her cousin and recurring interactions with daemons and humans. Yet she had not noticed how much it had changed, enriched and polluted by time and people. In a way it made her feel less stranger. </p>
<p>“Hello fae,” a known voice, cold, unsympathetic, filled her right ear.</p>
<p>She was laying in a prone position reading on her tablet and, when tried to turn, a strong hand on the back stopped her.</p>
<p>“I could not make it to Wyoming and it’s some time since we last met,” Aengus whispered to her ear. “How are you doing, Alia?”</p>
<p>“Fine,” she tried again to move, in vain. “And I’d be better if you let me turn.”</p>
<p>“I think I like the view,” replied Aengus feeling her exposed bottom with the other hand.</p>
<p>“Aengus,” she hissed, “get your hands off.”</p>
<p>“What?” Aengus frowned at the unusual rebuke. “It’s twenty five days, almost three months for you, and you welcome me this way?”</p>
<p>Alia recalled their last time together, when he had accompanied her to the portal. They had had sex for an hour or so, at the foot of the tree that marked the access to Earth, his cousin’s orgasmic farewell leaving her with a bittersweet aftertaste.</p>
<p>“Get off me!”</p>
<p>His hand squeezed hardly her right buttock. “Really?” Then his middle finger poked her anus. “Really?” Aengus repeated with a sting of annoyance, and slid his finger inside.</p>
<p>“I’m not joking, Aengus.”</p>
<p>Her tone’s coldness struck Aengus and he stood up, staring at her in disbelief. “What the fuck…?”</p>
<p>“What the fuck did you think? To show up and fuck me as if nothing happened?” retorted Alia sitting up on the sun-bed and fumbling for a towel.</p>
<p>“And what exactly happened, fae?” Aengus had stepped back and his cold voice sounded sharper than usual.</p>
<p>Alia regained her composure and opened her mind to read him.</p>
<p>He just lifted a brow and pursed his lips, with an inquisitive look. Then he shook his head sideways and disappeared in thin air.</p>
<p>“Idiot,” Alia whispered, not knowing whom the adjective applied to.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0025"><h2>25. Chapter 25</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western">The colour of truth is grey.</p>
<p class="western">(<em>André Gide</em>, French novelist)</p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western">Cape Canaveral AFS, Florida.</p>
<p class="western">The heavily scented air from the ocean filled Alia’s lungs while the nocturnal humidity made her flight suit stick to her skin like a badly healed scab. The noise from the nearby launch pads quite above her tolerance, even with protective earplugs. At the same time excited and worried she waited on the open vehicle, with part of the crew, their turn to reach the assigned launch pad and board their shuttle. It was her first flight beyond Earth atmosphere.</p>
<p class="western"><em>Space Life Foundation </em>owned the private facilities annexed to the air force station, which managed most of the commercial and non-military research space flights for the Americas. The shuttle they were to fly with to <em>Earth One</em> was also owned by a company under the SLF wings, and rented for this journey by the king of Colorado.</p>
<p class="western">Alia looked at Leonard, quietly huffing at her side. His mild annoyance at being surrounded by vampires was greatly overwhelmed by his fear for the imminent flight. During their week-long training to get the space-traveler certificate, which allowed them to board a space aircraft and stay in grade II orbiting stations, Leonard had incessantly asked about Diantha. Her favourite food and pastimes, her friends and, specifically, her lack of boyfriend. His attention to safety measures and rules of behaviour in space environments had been lazy at times and patchy for the rest. Alia had to instil some favourable thoughts in the mind of the officer appointed to assess their flight readiness and there, to her annoyance, Leonard’s concentration had shot to attention and he had stared at her with an inquisitive look.</p>
<p class="western">Without thinking much of it, Alia had mentally soothed his curiosity and diverted his attention to more factual matters, like quenching his thirst and visiting a toilet. The trick had worked beautifully and Leonard had never asked a question about the officer’s sudden pliability or, for that matter, thought again about the all incident. Alia had felt elated and terribly embarrassed. So easy, so powerful. She was afraid to admit even to herself how much she had enjoyed that kind of control. But she did.</p>
<p class="western"><em>Earth One</em>, known as <em>EOne</em>, had been built in the late twenties of the century as a replacement for the International Space Station. After that, technology had leapt ahead with vigorous strides and <em>ETwo</em>and <em>EThree</em> had followed quite soon. Now <em>Moon Station</em> was almost completed and settlements on Mars were being discussed in close detail. Therefore, <em>EOne</em> had lost any strategical interest and had been left to the greedy hands of civilian enterprises, most notably a large international consortium of vampire companies. Though, this specific knowledge remained hidden to the general population.</p>
<p class="western">The flight to the space station was uneventful, but for the utterly astonishment at the sight of the planet from above the atmosphere and of the space beyond it. It was so overwhelming and entirely unexpected she opened up her mind as if to absorb all the beauty and perfection of the vision.</p>
<p class="western">And it happened again.</p>
<p class="western">Emotions like fumes of exhaust spewed by old cars assailed her awareness: rapture laced with fear. Then, little bubbles of disconnected thoughts. <em>I’m meant to be here… humans are weaker than ever here… such beauty is… space is vampire… gods… </em></p>
<p class="western">Alia felt distinctly two minds, both vampire’s, and located their vessels right in the front seat row. Colorado’s retinue. She spent the rest of the flight considering the circumstance that these unrequested insight from vampire minds might become a stable tool in her hands. She was not satisfied at the prospect, though. The sterile room represented by vampire minds had served as refuge and cleansing experience. A way to recharge and fortify her mind. That had been the case since meeting the first vampire and it had been the reason she never lifted her shields around them. In a way, she had liked to find unreadable beings. Now, she was less thrilled to find that she could get some thoughts, feelings from them. At the same time, she was pleased. There was embarrassment, too.</p>
<p class="western">She shrugged off the experience, appointing a mental note to review it at a later time, and focused on her assignment requirements.</p>
<p class="western">From then on her time in <em>EOne</em> station went by evenly, until Alia found herself in a most difficult conundrum and no one to discuss it with.</p>
<p class="western">The king of Colorado, the handsome Chinese who had so highly praised her a few months earlier, had asked Alia’s services to find out who had purposefully blamed one of his most valued economical advisors, a young vampire, of a breach of confidentiality related to a multi-billion dollar contract which, in turn, had caused him the loss of all those <em>multi-billion dollars</em> involved. Regrettably, Xu had immediately ended the unfaithful consultant to discover, by chance and only the following month, that the young vampire had indeed been framed and the royal money loss was nowhere to be traced back to his supposedly disloyal conduct. Hu Ke Xu had to ask a favour to cover his huge loss, and that favour would have costed him greatly in the not far future.</p>
<p class="western">Therefore, now Xu craved blood, possibly of the right individual. And Alia had to deliver it to the king’s fury.</p>
<p class="western">To that goal the king had reunited all the parties originally aware of the said confidential matter in the space station module reserved for classified business, and let in Cataliades’ golden girl.</p>
<p class="western">Alia’s dilemma presented itself on the third day of the four allotted for the matter settlement. The telepaths had scanned all the humans involved in the drafting and negotiations of the contract and had found two heavily glamoured humans, a man and a woman. The fact of being glamoured did not pointed out unambiguously to responsibility in the breach, but reasonably marked a possibility and an opportunity.</p>
<p class="western">Then Alia caught a conversation, in whispers and thoughts, between a man verging on full blown anxiety and a scheming vampire.</p>
<p class="western">“I told you how to deceive the telepath,” said the vampire. <em>Duchebag… kill…</em></p>
<p class="western">“Yes, sir, I did, I did.” The man’s voice trembled. <em>Bloodsucker. Fuck you.</em></p>
<p class="western">“So, why didn’t she see what she had to see?”</p>
<p class="western">“I did… I’ll try harder. But maybe she’s not that good, after all.” The man tried to placate the vampire. <em>Fuck you, leech, only I know how is it to be under her stare. Fuck you, fuck you.</em></p>
<p class="western">“Try harder, burn in your mind Northman’s face and think of money.”</p>
<p class="western">“I will, sir, I will.” <em>Bloodsucker, I had to stab you when I had the chance. Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you.</em></p>
<p class="western">“Disappear, now,” the vampire said, then the sound of a hatch being opened and closed.</p>
<p class="western">Alia relaxed trying to keep her mind free and focused. Only her short breath betrayed her emotions. She waited in the head until the minds in the passageway moved on, and went to her quarters, a small cabin she shared with Leonard. Two modules on the left, and three modules up from there.</p>
<p class="western">The space station was an old concept structure made of interconnected modules, patched together in all direction and remodelled through the years depending on the required uses. Each module, a ten-metre long parallelepiped with a square base of five metres per side, usually contained a few cabins and a shared head. Getting confused with directions was easy enough. Alia reached her cabin after several minutes and closed the door behind her.</p>
<p class="western">Even if what she had gathered was an isolated piece of information, meaningful and leading to a potential different threat in itself, it also changed the connotation of all the findings amassed in the previous days. And possibly the way she should pry into the affair that had led to the contract infringement.</p>
<p class="western">The real inquiring work was done outside the official gatherings, but the latter helped to make people think about the contract and its unfortunate consequences for Colorado. And about all the other details they were supposed not to think at all. Human brains, in fact, worked along well rutted path and repeated the same circuit over and over. It was simply not possible to avoid thinking of something by sheer will. The mere action of thinking not to think led exactly to the censured thought.</p>
<p class="western">Daemons, with their superior mental strength, could do it. Fairies, at least those enough sensitive, could divert the reader attention with a light touch or cloud their own thoughts to some extent.</p>
<p class="western">When a vampire glamoured an individual, though, he left a permanent mark that spoke of it, making the glamouring detectable and, therefore, less effective for the goal it had to reach, because it read as a blurred memory. Yet, what the vampire had suggested could be effective to a certain degree. If a human could think intensely and unwavering of a certain idea, action, word, it could be hard for the reader to understand if it were a memory, a wish, a plan or else. Alia suspected what could really do the trick, but she had never told anyone, not even Rhiannon.</p>
<p class="western">And now it seemed that someone had studied those matters and was trying to fool her.</p>
<p class="western">… <em>set up for good, that asshole </em>(image of Northman’s face) <em>is getting too big for his boots… time…</em></p>
<p class="western">Alia’s eyes shot open as the stray red thoughts rolled again in her mind like distant lightning. Her guts tightened in a knot and all the other thoughts clouded, leaving exposed the double game someone was trying to feed her.</p>
<p class="western">Though, she had seen a face in the man’s head and a mindprint to chase.</p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western">***</p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western">“Telepath,” Xu’s voice matched his gaze in coldness. “I’m running out of patience.”</p>
<p class="western"><em>EOne</em>, being considered old technology, had not been upgraded with gravity enhancers and its modules, though large and well equipped, had not spin to create it. They were in one of the largest units and Alia had to hook a foot under a security support and hold a handle protruding from a side partition. She was upside down with respect to the vampire facing her, and he was not bothered the least by his own free floating. All his annoyance, in fact, was directed to the fae who had requested a private meeting.</p>
<p class="western">“What I mean, sir,” Alia tried again to sum up her investigation results, “is that those humans were deeply glamoured and I could not see what was covered by it. What I saw and felt clearly is the man’s strong fear to disappoint a vampire, a living one.” She could not tell the king anything about the fake memory cheat the human was trying to sell her as genuine, or about the identity of the vampire, without explaining how she had gotten to it.</p>
<p class="western">“And what do you suggest exactly to round the obstacle?”</p>
<p class="western">“We can try to pit one against the other, and see if anything comes up in their minds,” Alia concluded.</p>
<p class="western">“Why haven’t you already done so?”</p>
<p class="western">“Human minds are fidgety and fickle, and if I delve too deeply into them I can damage beyond repair their brain. Do you want to waste two collaborators who may be unrelated to the… incident?”</p>
<p class="western">“I don’t care,” Xu replied turning to face the fae in an upright position.</p>
<p class="western">“Majesty.” She had never used such title and it felt awkward. “If we were alone, just the four of us, and they were led to believe that you know they’re innocent and you’ll protect them from whoever is trying to force them…”</p>
<p class="western">“…they would think of when they have been glamoured and you’ll read them…” wrapped up the king, unconvinced.</p>
<p class="western">“Something like that,” Alia confirmed. “Once I was able to have a quick glimpse of the vampire before the glamour took hold.”</p>
<p class="western">Hu Ke Xu stared at the fae with a black gaze, pouting his lips.</p>
<p class="western">“I’m paying you liberally for your services, and you ask me to play at good cop bad cop?”</p>
<p class="western">“Article eight of our agreement states that my check is halved if no result comes up from the investigation,” Alia tried to keep a low tone. “I’m just trying to earn my full check. In any way.”</p>
<p class="western">A long pause stretched longer that she deemed healthy. “I’m to leave with the next shuttle. Within four hours,” Alia added finally.</p>
<p class="western">“Let them in.” The vampire was visibly doing an effort not to drop fangs, and the fae could smell his spicy scent. Too close for her taste.</p>
<p class="western">The humans entered the module and positioned themselves at the fairy’s side. She was smiling at them in the most reassuring way. As much as she could pretend, at least. But it did not seem much, by the look of their faces.</p>
<p class="western">Alia spoke softly and took their hands to help her reading. She talked to them and intruded their mind. Softly.</p>
<p class="western">The man got easily out of control and his glamouring really wavered under his fear while the woman appeared unconcerned. It was this latter who, with a light prodding from the fae, asked the man what had he been doing with the biker and their counsellor two months earlier. Alia had picked up that memory from many the woman was reviewing in the back of her mind, just to keep busy the man and dig deeper into his head.</p>
<p class="western">“I never met anyone, why do you ask?” The man was sweating profusely, but the question was uttered calmly, real bewilderment in it. Just the word counsellor elicited an expansion of his pupils.</p>
<p class="western">“Dark eyes and hair, tanned or dark skinned, partially pockmarked on the right side,” listed Alia as the image loomed in the man’s mind. She was whispering at the vampire’s ear. “The other one is… muddy… glamoured.”</p>
<p class="western">Xu blinked once, then retrieved his handheld device and typed a message. The station intranet allowed communication through personal tablets but the king had restricted their use for the time being. Obviously, rules did not apply to himself.</p>
<p class="western">Then everything went down so fast she was not able to understand what had really triggered the vampire’s wrath. Or why it was lashed out against one of his underlings.</p>
<p class="western">A hatch opened and a vampire floated inside, positioned himself upright respect to the others and did not have time to say anything. Xu was on him with a graceful leap and broke his neck with a snap that echoed in the silent module as an owl call in the night.</p>
<p class="western">Alia stilled. Without a conscious decision she unhooked her foot and took hold of the knife sheathed inside her boot, considering the scene like an unknown in a mathematical equation. The vampire was not dark eyed and haired and his face had not marks. The oddest part, however, was the fact that the vampire with the neck twisted in an improbable position was not dead. Xu hunched on him with a knife on his hand, whispering to his ear like a father reprimanding a kid in public. Time moved slowly, or her mind could process it only in little chunks. Then, Xu thrusted his elbow up and down, a syncopated rhythm to it, and blood spilled out in tiny drops and droplets, forming an expanding cloud of red drifting in the air.</p>
<p class="western">A gurgling sound broke the scene and Xu’s arm stopped. Alia, crouched on a bulkhead, tried to fence off her mind, but a part of it was working on its own. The seconds ticked away and the red drizzle floated her way. It was when Xu bit the vampire’s throat, tearing his flesh and spitting a piece of it sideways, that Alia pushed her body toward a hatch and left the module. It had not been a conscious decision. More an automated backup programme kicking in.</p>
<p class="western">Only when the door of her cabin irised closed behind her, she caught a breath and felt her muscles twitching. She stood there, floating and breathing and watching the weird furniture bolted to what was either ceiling or floor or wall. Her heart regained its regular speed and she noticed red specks on her jacket. Slowly, a notion of time came back to her and an alarm got off. Her tablet reminding her it was time to leave</p>
<p class="western">She was in the docking lounge, an area of soft seatings and small windows facing the approaching route of incoming spacecraft, when she became aware of the mental yell of the dying vampire. It was a shrill scratching the bottom of her head, and it had followed her as a rabid dog.</p>
<p class="western">Some part of her noticed Leonard offering her a bulb of water, trying to clean her jacket with a wet towel, maybe speaking. Though, the single thought in her mind was the dying vampire and his last breath, his yell to the unknown. She had to hear him out and understand.</p>
<p class="western">It was not the first time she had met death and, specifically, a vampire’s death. But it was the first time she was paying attention to it.</p>
<p class="western">She had always considered them different from humans. Now, though, she was not sure any more. Something was missing. Regret and guilt filled her chest, like what she had not yet understood was important.</p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western">***</p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western">Eric’s good looks had crossed centuries without failing to gather a large crowd of admirers in every place. His tall, muscled frame crowned with an exquisitely chiselled face, fair complexion, dark blue eyes and blond hair had always been fashionable and welcomed. His handsomeness had been the reason for his turning and the wicked use his maker had forced on him.</p>
<p class="western">Likely for these same motives Eric, while shamelessly using his beauty to his ends, was ambivalent toward it and never gave it more importance than the results it allowed him to reach. Which were mainly feeding and fucking.</p>
<p class="western">Since he had become king, the personal donors at his New Orleans palace had satisfied both his needs, but from time to time he called for something different. Something that was not a compliant animal paid to offer her blood. Even if the sexual part was never included in the monthly salary (lest to be accused of pimping) and represented a free choice of the individual, no one had ever failed to offer it even if not asked.</p>
<p class="western">Tonight Eric, dressing in a casual, lowly way, headed to the downtown club district. His guards, Xeres and a vampire, knew the kind of night that laid ahead of them. One of waiting at the far fringe of the king’s personal area in a crowded nightclub and then outside a flat in a working class neighbourhood. It did not happen very often, roughly once per month or less, but the fact was that the blond vampire was never really happy afterward. More than one wondered why he bothered to.</p>
<p class="western">The first one to approach Eric was a tall, blond girl with a tight jumpsuit that wrung out her phoney breasts like a dollop of toothpaste. It was not the only counterfeit element in her appearance. He declined her invitation.</p>
<p class="western">Others came. After an hour of screening and skimming, Eric was tired and chose two girls who worked in tandem, or so they said. He asked them to show him and watched as they pleasured themselves. It was a mild exciting display from Eric’s perspective. At a certain point one girl wore a strap-on dildo and began to pound heavily the other woman, front and back, watching Eric as to show him what to do next. The vampire, facing the couch where the two girls played their game, got closer and crouched beside the girl who was reaching her climax.</p>
<p class="western">Eric watched her coming, a moderate criticism in his eyes, then bit her and drank. The girl goggled realising their guest was a vampire but relaxed at once, both from orgasming and relishing the bite. Eric let go of her and reached out to the other woman, leading her head to his bulging crotch. His release came after a long time, without satisfaction.</p>
<p class="western">Even those short escapades had reached their bottom, thought Eric leaving the girls’ flat. His pleasant and comfortable life seemed less congenial lately, and he struggled to regain his former reasonable enjoyment at those little romps in town.</p>
<p class="western">But life was like that, he kept telling himself, ups and downs. Maybe it was just the cycle repeating itself and after a decade of ups it was the downs turn now.</p>
<p class="western">When he woke up the next night, he moved through his life with a different state of mind. The same routines but an offbeat taste to them. A sparring session with Xeres, a long swim, a shower that did not cleanse his mood. When he entered his study and switched on the monitor, he set aside his musings and plunged into everyday work. It was a distraction. Something he welcomed.</p>
<p class="western">His wife had already left two messages. He called her back. Her voice was familiar and soothing.</p>
<p class="western">“And your sweet telepath?” asked Rehema.</p>
<p class="western">Eric was caught off guard as they were discussing some further necessary moves in their clan politics, but did not correct her. She was intentionally teasing him and he did not give her the pleasure to take the bait.</p>
<p class="western">“She’s currently working for Colorado.”</p>
<p class="western">As a resident in his kingdom, he had agreed with Cataliades that the telepath would require his authorisation to work for other vampire kingdoms.</p>
<p class="western">“Mmm, Colorado? And do you trust him?”</p>
<p class="western">“Certainly not, but Adrianne asked a favour…”</p>
<p class="western">“Ah!” Rehema’s little smile passed quickly over her lips, then the queen’s head moved outside the screen and when she sat back in front of the camera her face was tense. “Colorado. Wyoming should better contain her… friend.”</p>
<p class="western">“She says she holds his balls. What’s the matter?”</p>
<p class="western">“Nothing too substantial, yet. But there are rumours from his country,” said Rehema. “But I meant what about you and the telepath.”</p>
<p class="western">“She’s working a lot. If you want details you should ask Pam and Karin.”</p>
<p class="western">“Eric,” Rehema shook her head, “are you doing your best to avoid her?”</p>
<p class="western">“Rehema,” mirrored Eric, “you know we have a resident telepath for our current affairs. Sookie is handling different assignments and Karin or Pam are always with her.”</p>
<p class="western">“Oh Eric, Hunter is not as talented as Sookie. She’s working for vampires, fairies and daemons, and rumours say she is very… strong. But this is not the point, again. You and her. Did you two—”</p>
<p class="western">“There’s not much to say,” he interjected. “A lot of time passed by, we… we moved on.”</p>
<p class="western">“You don't seem to have moved much farther,” Rehema stated. “And, if she has not brought this up either, it means she’s in the very same position. It’s been four months since her arrival. It’s time to face the issue. For your own good.”</p>
<p class="western">Eric was quiet, looking at her wife’s image on the screen.</p>
<p class="western">“Do you enjoy harassing me?” Eric asked finally.</p>
<p class="western">“Greatly. And I won’t stop till—”</p>
<p class="western">“Yes, I suspected so.”</p>
<p class="western">“I have a long life, Eric, yet not as long as your stalling implies,” Rehema said. “And I need a strong ally, now. You should decide what to do and do it. At the moment you’re… just waiting and being distracted.”</p>
<p class="western">“I don’t know, Rehema,” Eric started after a while. “I simply don’t know what to do, but maybe I know what I don’t want.”</p>
<p class="western">“Which would be?”</p>
<p class="western">“I don’t want to fall into the same scheme we were when we were married,” he said. “I had always to convince her to do what was necessary, but she rarely paid attention or did what was required. I had to justify myself to her all the time. To justify my being vampire. The society, the shadow society we lived in. She never really accepted it.” Then he was silent.</p>
<p class="western">“Then don’t. Anyway, I think circumstances are very different now and you cannot reproduce… the same pattern,” his wife noted. “She comes as a fae, now. You are at the apex of that society and don’t have to follow orders. She lives in the same shadow society and understands more of its laws. Should I carry on?”</p>
<p class="western">“So, we both are very different and maybe don’t have much to say to each other.”</p>
<p class="western">“Possible,” replied Rehema. “But she’s still in your mind and hinders you. That’s reason enough to go and see what’s in there for you. Maybe nothing, maybe something you don’t want. Maybe something different from what you think and that you—”</p>
<p class="western">“Lots of maybes. Maybe I don’t need to check to know I don’t need that.”</p>
<p class="western">She paused, sipped from a glass and laid it down somewhere outside of the screen area. “What do you fear, Eric?”</p>
<p class="western">Eric sat at his desk, a large rosewood table where the screen would slid down once switched off. The vampire was tempted to do just that, and smiled at the idea. The vampiress would have called right back and pestered him to no end for his childish behaviour. It would not have bothered him, though. He reached out to his glass and sipped some water.</p>
<p class="western">It was less than half an hour to sunset and the sky had already veered to a warm shade of light blue and rose. The east windows were open and let in dank smells from the lake’s still waters.</p>
<p class="western">“She fought me every step. She wanted me but fought me all the time on most things. It’s true it was a time fraught with dangers and unpredictable events, but she rarely was at my side without fighting it. She just followed her friends’ words and… I don’t want this again.”</p>
<p class="western">“Would you want her without the quarrelling bit, and see if there’s something… for you?” Rehema looked at Eric’s face, trying to read him through his too determined blankness. He was silent, his jaw tight.</p>
<p class="western">When he finally spoke his tone was just disappointed.</p>
<p class="western">“I’d like her to want me and show it in every move. Fight for me and not against me,” he said. “I won’t try to convince her of anything. She has to find for herself what she wants and why.”</p>
<p class="western">Rehema nodded. “Let her know that, then.”</p>
<p class="western">Eric shook his head pursing his lips. “No, Rehema. It’s something she has to find for herself. If she has it inside, that is.”</p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western">***</p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western">A week had passed by since her return from <em>EOne</em> and Alia still sensed the red flare of the dying vampire’s scream in her head. The distant echo of that cry accompanied her like an itching that no scratch could appease.</p>
<p class="western">Alia had never thought of vampires as weak creatures or beings fearful of dying. Their physical strength and the forcefulness of their lives made them unafraid and scary, but it seemed that did not mean that they dreaded death less. That cry conveyed the all too human fear of the unknown lifeless darkness. Vampires came out so vulnerable and human that Alia felt ashamed to have valued their life less than human’s.</p>
<p class="western">That week she had also been conflicted about telling what she had heard. The fact was that Alia did not want to meet Eric again, at least not in private, and did not want to disclose the way she had gained that information. At the same time, she wanted to see him and tell him everything. Then, after some more pondering, she did not want to see Eric at all. Then, again, she wanted.</p>
<p class="western">It was an exhausting and contradictory time, her will swinging back and forth and failing to choose a side. Until the following week when Alia went to Shreveport and met Pamela at one of the boutiques in the Area Five building she lived in. Alia was looking at a piece of dark red lingerie, considering if trying or discarding it.</p>
<p class="western">“Let me see it on you,” an amused voice said behind her, “and I’ll tell you if to buy it or not.”</p>
<p class="western">“Pam,” exclaimed Alia turning.</p>
<p class="western">“Sookie,” Pamela smiled. “Who’s the lucky one who will see you through that lace?”</p>
<p class="western">“No one really. At least, no one I know of now,” quipped Alia setting the teddy aside on the counter.</p>
<p class="western">“Then, I offer to be the one to take it off you, fae.”</p>
<p class="western">“Or we can go out to see if I find a more suitable one to take it off me,” Alia continued.</p>
<p class="western">“Now you offend me.”</p>
<p class="western">“Didn’t mean it, Pam. But you lack something to…”</p>
<p class="western">“Sookie, you disappoint me. Do you really need bat and balls to have fun? It’s reductive and short-sighted.” The vampiress helped with some bags while heading to the lift. “Give me the chance to show what you might be missing.”</p>
<p class="western">“Pam, it’s your tits… I don’t know what to do with them!”</p>
<p class="western">“Can’t believe that! You can squeeze them, lick, bite, suck, scratch, pull, swallow them, you can press your—”</p>
<p class="western">“Maybe I’m not thrilled at the idea, you know.”</p>
<p class="western">“And I thought you became a full fae!” Pamela said. “I’m sure in Faery have a <em>Fae and Boobs</em> course and that it’s compulsory for any decent fairy.”</p>
<p class="western">They had reached Alia’s flat entry and the door had just opened with her iris recognition. “Pam, I have to tell you something…”</p>
<p class="western">“You missed the course, didn’t you? I can supply a crash course in less—”</p>
<p class="western">“Seriously, Pam,” Alia said inviting the vampiress to follow her inside. “It’s important and delicate.”</p>
<p class="western">“Just for you to know, I was fucking serious,” Pamela closed the door, let the shopping bags on the floor and followed the fae.</p>
<p class="western">“I heard something,” Alia was at the kitchen counter preparing something to drink. “Something about… your maker.”</p>
<p class="western">They sat in the living room and Alia stalled for time. Laid down a tray on the side table and took a seat on the sofa. Then sipped at her glass.</p>
<p class="western">“I heard some thoughts, not very friendly thoughts, about him.”</p>
<p class="western">Pamela’s attention was focused on Alia’s lips.</p>
<p class="western">“Tennessee and Colorado people are involved.”</p>
<p class="western">The vampiress’ eyes darted from Alia’s lips to the fae’s breasts.</p>
<p class="western">“Pam, stop that! I’m fucking serious!”</p>
<p class="western">“I don’t doubt you are… but you’re drinking from my glass, and some blood leaked over your right boob.”</p>
<p class="western">“Cool down, Pam,” Alia noticed both glasses contained blood and set hers back on the tray. “Did you hear me? Some vampires are up to something against the king.”</p>
<p class="western">“There’s always someone plotting against him, it’s a royal prerogative. What about that drop?”</p>
<p class="western">“Leave it there and listen to me.”</p>
<p class="western">Alia reported all she had heard omitting sources and circumstances, and began to suspect that Pamela was not so playful when offering to introduce her to sapphic entertainment.</p>
<p class="western"> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0026"><h2>26. Chapter 26</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western">“How is your speech therapy going?” Alia asked when they were alone.</p>
<p class="western">Leonard had just left Diantha’s room with a folder and the firm was quite silent at that time of the evening. Employees who worked late had not yet arrived and those on day shift had already left.</p>
<p class="western">“Idont knowifI likeit, but it’s working, Iguess,” Diantha said with a visible effort of concentration.</p>
<p class="western">“Yes, I noticed, and I’m glad,” the fae smiled, “if you appreciate the results, do you?”</p>
<p class="western">“I do,” replied the daemon.</p>
<p class="western">Alia nodded in the direction of the closing door. “What about Leonard?”</p>
<p class="western">“Whatabout Leonard?” repeated Diantha frowning.</p>
<p class="western">“He’s dying to attract your attention, to go out with you and to do some other things to you I don’t want to know about.”</p>
<p class="western">“Leonard? Areyou joking?” asked Diantha.</p>
<p class="western">“Don’t tell me you didn’t notice.”</p>
<p class="western">“I didn’t,” Diantha said shaking her head, “he never askedmeout, he never hintedatanything, Imean we’reat the firm allthetime andhe never…”</p>
<p class="western">“Now, you know. Are you… interested?” Alia smiled.</p>
<p class="western">“Interested in someone who doesn’teventalk to me, who doesn’tshowme hisinterestand notevenhisotherideas about what to do tome?” replied Diantha with a red glint in her eyes. “Not really. Besides, I’mseeing someone—”</p>
<p class="western">The fae seemed uncertain, and somehow displeased at the idea of Leonard’s unrequited love. “That’s wonderful,” she said instead, “and who would he be?”</p>
<p class="western">Diantha smiled in an unusual reserved way, her pointy teeth showing between her lips. She gave a look at the screen of her tablet, then said, “What about going out for a drink? He just texted me he’ll be at <em>Aíma </em>for another hour.”</p>
<p class="western">Alia agreed out of curiosity and because it was so long since she had a night out with a friend. Though, unformed thoughts nagged at the back of her head and a distant uneasiness swirled in her gut.</p>
<p class="western"><em>Aíma</em> was a vampire bar in downtown, connected with a restaurant, a spa, a gym and a gallery of shops with high end boutiques and jewellery, much in the same way as Area Five headquarters in Shreveport. They landed in a secluded parking area and headed toward the entrance.</p>
<p class="western">Diantha seemed at ease among vampires and led her inside the bar toward a shadowy booth in the darkest corner of the place. But, Alia thought, daemons were always confident and comfortable amongst vampires: they knew their blood was acrid and unpalatable and their sweaty nature was definitely not compelling to vampires. Indeed, Alia had never known of such a couple. It was exactly the opposite of fairies: their blood was sweet and intoxicating to vampires. The mere smell of fae blood could drive a young vampire into a frenzied behaviour in a matter of minutes. So she had been told. But, maybe, it was just a prejudice or a piece of advice given to hold fairies out of the way. However, that was why only fairies who mastered the scent concealing skill could venture in vampire land.</p>
<p class="western">Alia knew her blood had changed since she had become full fae, although she could not say anything about its taste. She felt more energetic and alive, as if her blood flowed stronger and recharged her body in a deeper way. It was just a physical sensation, and an awareness of which she could not trace its origin. However, she could suppress her bodily smells altogether and that was weird enough for vampires who were accustomed to use their olfactive sense to detect emotional states and physiological facts.</p>
<p class="western">The bar clientele was an odd mix of vampires, daemons, humans and a few bizarre creatures who reminded her of dr Ludwig. They were as tall as a ten years old child but their faces were battered by age, their eyes dark and joyful. Alia smiled at the hidden variety of humanoid population who, to an unconcerned average human, would have looked like a motley crowd of adults and dwarfs of the most indiscriminate taste and look. She liked it.</p>
<p class="western">The place itself was richly furnished, with abundance of curved walls and slightly distorting mirrors. This way people seemed coming out from rounded corners and jumping directly to the opposite wall, their images slightly different and somehow slowed down. After a while Alia understood those mirrors were live screens and lost some time trying to spot cameras.</p>
<p class="western">When her gaze came back to their table an alcoholic concoction stood in front of her. The human waiter who had just laid it down sported fake fangs and a cross-eyed gaze. Alia tasted the drink and smiled her approval. The waiter nodded satisfied and went away.</p>
<p class="western">Diantha took her glass and clinked it against Alia’s in a silent toast. The liquid was spicy and full of chemicals meant to stir up a cheerful mood. Alia relaxed on the sofa and decided to monitor the colourful crowd around them. She unfolded and freed her mind, then chose some mind waves and assigned a channel each. Humans, daemons and some vampire’s voids. It was a cursory sweep, like a gaze to take in the way people dressed without singling out designers and fashion styles.</p>
<p class="western">“Lady Alia,” said Latsis, a mild smile on his lips, “glad to see you, it was some time.” He lingered over their table, his dark business suit oddly matching his tousled hair.</p>
<p class="western">“Secretary,” the fae straightened her body.</p>
<p class="western">Diantha watched the fae closely and moved along the sofa to free a place at her side. Latsis’ smile showed an unexpected warmness when his eyes met the little daemon’s and his long frame bent graciously to kiss her.</p>
<p class="western">Alia’s expression was one of amusement, glancing at each daemon alternatively. Diantha giggled silently and slid below the daemon’s arm.</p>
<p class="western">“Sookie,” suddenly a voice rang over the table, “Diantha.”</p>
<p class="western">Alia lifted her eyes to meet Eric’s and stiffened. Her stomach twisted as she tried to relax her features, then she nodded and lowered her gaze. All her mental shields tightened and she found herself sealed from the outside, floating in her head like a prisoner.</p>
<p class="western">Diantha and Latsis stood up, said something that got lost into the background noise and went to the dance floor. The music, a chant that reminded her of a religious dirge with a beating rhythm, filled the moment with a sense of loss.</p>
<p class="western">“How are you?” asked Eric, still standing at the table side.</p>
<p class="western">“Fine, and you?” Alia thought that she should have pursued her teleportation lessons with more determination.</p>
<p class="western">“Fine,” he said. “May I?” He gestured at the seating.</p>
<p class="western">“Sure,” she nodded and attempted a smile.</p>
<p class="western">“Pam told me your telepathy has improved a lot…” he said after a while.</p>
<p class="western">“I studied and trained it,” Alia nodded.</p>
<p class="western">“…and that you can protect your mind effortlessly,” he continued.</p>
<p class="western">Alia nodded again.</p>
<p class="western">Eric smiled. “Then, you don’t need vampires to silence down the world, now.”</p>
<p class="western">Alia stared at him. She was trying not to cry or not to scream, what exactly she did not know but she felt like yelling and shattering his ostensible calmness into pieces.</p>
<p class="western">Eric’s smile disappeared under her gaze and his eyes showed a veil of sadness.</p>
<p class="western">Alia opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. She still wanted to yell at him, but now she was not sure anymore about what she felt like smashing. Maybe nothing.</p>
<p class="western">A vampiress appeared at their side bowing lightly, and said, “Sir, the envoy’s car is landing now.”</p>
<p class="western">“Thank you, Roxanne,” his dark blue eyes did not leave Alia’s. “Have a nice night, Sookie.”</p>
<p class="western">Alia watched him standing and leaving, the tall and well built vampiress behind him. Her stomach was still twisted as if trying to digest an unpalatable meal.</p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western">***</p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western">The following days were demanding and heavy for Alia’s internal organs. Stomach and intestines were very taxed, but lungs too had a hard time working efficiently. But Alia ignored her body attempts to independence and wore her blank expression with ease.</p>
<p class="western">The week began with Leonard who asked her out to help him training in crowded places. It was already a few weeks that Alia was assisting him with increasingly difficult tasks, and it was time to grill him in a serious <em>combing</em> session. No place was better than a packed nightclub with booze and a varied choice of synthetic stimulants to offer mind waves with rough and swinging patterns.</p>
<p class="western">The human telepath was not very talented and needed constant help to keep track of more than three channels. She was showing how to <em>comb</em> inputs without being overwhelmed by them, when a whiff of pleasure slid across her awareness. It took her a fraction of a second to recognise the mind pattern behind that feeling. She turned. The smile on Eric’s face was hesitant but his eyes were on her, unfaltering. He was crossing the hall, avoiding the dance floor, with a party of vampires and a human. Alia identified Karin and Hunter, the tall and well built vampiress she had already met, and another vampiress. Beautiful. The kind of beauty everybody could agree on: maybe ten centimetres shorter than the king, a slender and delicate frame despite her considerable height, an elegant face with rare features. She wore a loose robe whose colours changed with lights but complimented her dark skin. Alia remembered her from the king’s file she had avidly read after the royal audience: Rehema Donnelly, his wife.</p>
<p class="western">Jealousy pinched Alia’s mind like a mousetrap shutting close on a tail. Her body stilled. Leonard, striving to keep open a few more channels than usual, did not picked up anything. As Eric halted to nod in greeting, his party stalled around him and one by one turned to see who had caught his attention. Karin and Hunter joined Alia for a brief salute, while Rehema stared at her with a warm expression.</p>
<p class="western">Alia’s jealousy squeaked.</p>
<p class="western">It was a moment, but enough to leave a mark. Then Alia purged her mind of every lingering emotions, and switched to the dumb blond mind frame. As wearing high heel shoes makes one aware of steps and rugs, so adopting a mind frame rounds edges and frees space.</p>
<p class="western">The rest of the evening she pushed Leonard to his limits and met some of hers.</p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western">***</p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western">Some times weekends with her nephews and brother helped Alia to swim through her life easily. Some other time they were not enough. Alia could share with her relatives only a little piece of her life, and their lives seemed too limited for her. But it was not anyone’s fault. There was nothing to excuse nor to regret.</p>
<p class="western">Therefore, after a chat or a diner Alia would go back to her flat in Shreveport and study or watch tv. Sometimes she went out to explore the city and its inhabitants. Other times she called Pamela and, if she was in town, they would go clubbing or to cinema, theatre.</p>
<p class="western">Tonight they agreed to meet at <em>OnceWasFangtasia</em>. The famous restaurant catered also for vampires and offered a selection of natural bloods and a line of foods whose ingredient was synthetic blood reconstituted in different states (liquid, solid, foam, gas). It was not a venue Alia favoured but she understood that her friend did not want to be far from the sheriff’s office.</p>
<p class="western">Pamela appeared at her door with an evening dress that hugged her shoulders, squeezed her hips and covered one leg with a long skirt and the other with what remained of a pair of cigarette trousers. Dark blue and green, depending on the light or the body temperature. Alia had seen ads promoting the life experience those new fabrics granted, but her life had already plenty of new experiences and she was not eager to add more. The vampiress, though, had a different idea. She walked inside Alia’s flat with two bags full of them.</p>
<p class="western">“You must be joking,” Alia said browsing inside a bag. “Isn’t the regency enough to occupy your time?”</p>
<p class="western">Pamela smiled. “I felt like cheering up my favourite fairy.”</p>
<p class="western">“This fae is—”</p>
<p class="western">“A pain in the ass, trust me.”</p>
<p class="western">“Probably,” Alia continued to explore the bags’ content, bringing out dresses, scarfs, belts. “But I don’t feel like a—”</p>
<p class="western">“Sookie,” said the vampiress putting her hands on the fairy’s shoulders and holding her attention, “indulge me, tonight. You can use some fun. When is the last time you went out for a drink?”</p>
<p class="western">Alia lifted an eyebrow and smiled unwillingly. “Maybe that was exactly what I didn’t need to be reminded of!”</p>
<p class="western">“Then, let’s make a new memory of your last time for a drink and a chat.”</p>
<p class="western">Alia opened her mouth, and closed it. Maybe dressing up like there was a reason was reason enough. The logic did not seem sound at first, but at a second glance looked less stupid. After that, it became almost an axiom.</p>
<p class="western">Alia accepted to wear a light green dress whose fabric threatened to become darker if the she caught a cold or a fever, or to highlight a limb with random red dots under a light between three and four thousand degrees Kelvin. Alia hoped the pumps could just stay the same, but forgot to ask.</p>
<p class="western"><em>OnceWasFangtasia</em> was anything like its forerunner. Indeed, the only ties it could boast were its name and the place it occupied. Tough, the first vampire bar in Shreveport had left its mark in all the versions it had morphed into through several decades.</p>
<p class="western">Now, it was a sophisticated restaurant where politicians and businessmen found a chance to meet their corresponding vampire counterparts and, in an invitation only area on the second floor, the unofficial lounge of the local sheriffdom.</p>
<p class="western">“I thought India’s offices where on the third and fourth floors,” said Alia as Pamela introduced her to <em>tUskS</em>.</p>
<p class="western">“This is a vampire only club, access granted only to upper ranks and their guests,” replied the vampiress dropping her fangs. “Only for us. No humans, daemons, fairies or other supes.”</p>
<p class="western">Alia frowned. “So…?”</p>
<p class="western">“I’m the fucking regent, fae. I set rules and exceptions.” Pamela shrugged. “So, you’re the first and only fairy who will ever cross that door.”</p>
<p class="western">The entry was an undetectable portion of wall at the end of a dim-lit corridor. It opened when Pamela was still one metre away and closed as soon as Alia stepped inside. The narrow vestibule was deserted and dark. If the vampiress mindprint had not been at her side, Alia would have thought of an ambush. However, it was enough to turn the fairy in fighting mode.</p>
<p class="western">Then, the air moved on the right. Alia jumped back and on the left. A rustle of clothes, followed by a dull thud. A whisper she did not understood, a hand gripping her neck and the smell of burned blood filling her nostrils. The hand released its hold as her sleeve got wet, and a body weighed on the hand holding the dagger.</p>
<p class="western">“You fine?” the fairy asked.</p>
<p class="western">“What the fuck did you do?” asked Pamela at the same time.</p>
<p class="western">A door opened and the light from outside illuminated the scene.</p>
<p class="western">Alia leaned on the left wall holding a dagger, her blooded arm partially hidden by a vampire knelt in front of her. Pamela held the vampire’s arm behind his back in an uncomfortable position.</p>
<p class="western">“Regent?”</p>
<p class="western">“Switch some fucking lights on,” hissed Alia.</p>
<p class="western">“Regent?” repeated again a voice coming from the vampiress at the door.</p>
<p class="western">“Lights,” said Pamela, “and a few donors for Tádé.”</p>
<p class="western">The illumination, when someone actually brought the lights up, barely brightened the narrow entrance. Alia blinked twice and inspected her body, as if her internal knowledge was not completely reliable to certify her uninjured state. The vampire at her feet, hands clasped around his throat, had lost a lot of blood, a good amount of which over her jacket.</p>
<p class="western">“Explain,” ordered Pamela, her voice icy.</p>
<p class="western">“What should I explain? It wasn’t me who waited in the darkness to attack a guest,” answered Alia. Then she noticed that Pamela was addressing the sheriff, still standing at the door.</p>
<p class="western">“Just standard procedure, Regent,” replied India. The fairy could not say if she was playing it down or really stating the obvious. “The queen’s inside and Tádé had been charged to disarm guests.”</p>
<p class="western">Two vampires in waiter outfits had silently slid inside and helped the wounded out, leaving the hallway by another door. Alia just moved aside not to hinder their movements, but did not feel like relaxing. Her mind had just archived the fact that she had not detected the assailant’s void mind.</p>
<p class="western">“Keeping the lights on and kindly asking visitors for weapons would have been weird, right?” snapped Alia.</p>
<p class="western">“We didn’t know a fairy was coming.”</p>
<p class="western">Pamela had not moved her gaze from the sheriff. The sheriff stilled, straightening her back and looking at a point over the regent’s right shoulder.</p>
<p class="western">“Tádé did what he could with his limits and I hope he will survive. But it’s been a poor choice on your part, sheriff.” Pamela’s body was tense. “How are you, fae?”</p>
<p class="western">Alia spoke flatly. “The jacket got ruined.”</p>
<p class="western">“It’s on us, obviously,” said the sheriff, managing to retain her stillness while speaking. It was her doll-like face, decided Alia, that gave her the ominous look of a dead object.</p>
<p class="western">Pamela nodded and relaxed. “Is our table ready?”</p>
<p class="western">Something had happened in those minutes, but Alia could not tell what exactly. As the sheriff led them to their table, took custody of the jacket and ushered in a waiter to attend to them, Pamela’s cheerfulness came back as if someone had pressed a button and changed the scene. It was not the first time her friend’s behaviour showed such an edge.</p>
<p class="western">Alia had barely sat down on a plush armchair and was forcing relaxation in her muscles that Pamela was already recounting her last fling with a journalist up in her town.</p>
<p class="western">“She’s a little nosey thing,” said Pamela. “But it’s to be expected by a journalist, uh?”</p>
<p class="western">Alia nodded and sipped at her flute. The drink was alcoholic but not enough to have an anaesthetising effect. That she would have welcomed, now.</p>
<p class="western">“I’m not sure it’s over yet, though,” the vampiress continued. “She’s got a way to ask forgiveness for all her stupid quirks… I wonder…”</p>
<p class="western">“What has just transpired, Pam?”</p>
<p class="western">“Not much. But she’s always pushing me to know—”</p>
<p class="western">“At the entrance.”</p>
<p class="western">“—how is it to be vampire, if we have an internal organisation, how we—”</p>
<p class="western">“Why did he attack me?”</p>
<p class="western">“—manage our business. I’m starting to think she’s not—“</p>
<p class="western">“I’m still coming down off an adrenaline rush, and don’t know what to expect next,” said Alia. The anticipation for a refreshing, light-hearted night out had just vanished and her old uneasiness at the harshness of the praeternatural world seemed to have crept back from a dark door.</p>
<p class="western">“—very captivated by my wonderful personality,” concluded the vampiress, and turned to watch the fae. “Tádé is deaf, partially mute, surely idiot but not a danger for you. Simply, darkness is not a problem for vampires and he didn’t think you couldn’t see him. You, instead of letting him checking you, have hit him hard, not heard his excuses and stabbed him with a silver-coated blade -nice thing, by the way. Now, the poor thing will remember something, probably to switch lights on or to speak louder. The problem is the sheriff. It’s her responsibility to oversee her underlings. And a bouncer like him… I’ll inform Karin, it’ll be her problem.”</p>
<p class="western">“So you’re telling me I freaked out for nothing?”</p>
<p class="western">“Karin told me you had honed your fighting skills just fine,” now the vampiress was smiling like a dog who had just retrieved a lost bone. “And I noticed you’re not so concerned about the well-being of the Dull. What about your brand new jacket?”</p>
<p class="western">“Really? Just that?” Alia exhaled deeply. “Not a murderous king about to jump up from under my chair? A fucking monad scratching my back? Not even a rabid dog plotting to bite to my calf?”</p>
<p class="western">“Now that I think about it, Sookie, it’s some months you’re around and nothing serious has happened. Have you lost your edge?”</p>
<p class="western">“Let’s toast it,” Alia said. “Hopefully, we’ll find something to light up the night.”</p>
<p class="western">“That’s the way, Sookie. You can’t take life too seriously. It will always bite back at you, whatever you do. We might as well have fun… till next shit hits the fan!”</p>
<p class="western">Alia watched her friend and, maybe for the first time, she saw a distant pain in the lines of her face. Her fine, delicate countenance could swing from a cold determination in the face of life’s downturns to a childish enthusiasm for the beauty the same life offered her. Alia felt like hugging and tell her how wonderful she was.</p>
<p class="western">“You have to meet a friend of mine, Chadwick,” she said instead, “he’s a dancer and you two would get along just fine.”</p>
<p class="western">“A fairy?”</p>
<p class="western">“Just a wonderful being, Pam. You’ll love him.”</p>
<p class="western">“Well, if he’s conquered your heart, I want to know him for sure,” said Pamela.</p>
<p class="western">Two goblets had been laid down in front of them without Alia noticing the waiter who had brought them. She winced and decided it was time to start the evening with the right foot. It was almost an hour that she was in a very exclusive vampire club, and all she had done was soiling her jacket.</p>
<p class="western">Therefore, as Pamela resumed her amorous tales, she watched around and started her mind probing. Until that moment she had not noticed the emptiness of the place. Her mind, in fact, did not perceive any thought, just a low emotional tide that washed over her from afar. Patrons and personnel were all vampires and she was the only non-vampire visitor. She wondered whether it was a statement to her foolishness, or to her newly found boldness, walking into a vampire lair with an iridescent ensemble and a silver toothpick.</p>
<p class="western">The club had an air of old, reassuring familiarity nurtured through natural colours, solid materials and known shapes. Thus it seemed to step into a domestic landscape, made of common memories and shared values. On a shelf, behind an ancient candleholder topped with a dark lampshade, a set of pictures with grandparents and children, young couples and pets.</p>
<p class="western">Alia nodded. Everybody had been a child once, and those images were both intimate and universal. The subtle way the place made the guests feel safe was unsettling and comfortable at the same time.</p>
<p class="western">Pamela’s voice had lost some of its sparkle, and now it came to her as a warm breeze. “…find one worth of your attention, fae?”</p>
<p class="western">“This place is tricky,” said Alia.</p>
<p class="western">“Maybe you’re not enough… attentive.”</p>
<p class="western">“It makes you feel accepted and relaxed.” Alia noted her glass was empty.</p>
<p class="western">“Aren’t you? Is there something…”</p>
<p class="western">“It’s deceiving. It makes you drink more than you wanted,” the fae started to fidget with her dress. She felt a faint uneasiness gathering around her. Maybe the familiarity offered by the ambiance was more sharp than secure.</p>
<p class="western">“What’s bothering you, Sookie?”</p>
<p class="western">“It’s just… maybe this is not the right place for a fae, after all,” she giggled at her own words. “India said the queen was inside and…”</p>
<p class="western">It had been a sudden realisation, as if the sheriff’s words had been said in another language and only now she had translated them. The queen was there. The sadness settling in her stomach now had been chasing her for some time, and Alia felt too tired to dampen it again.</p>
<p class="western">“I better go,” she said.</p>
<p class="western">Pamela’s expression sobered and watched her friend.</p>
<p class="western">“Your presence here is just fine, Sookie. What are you thinking?”</p>
<p class="western">Alia shrugged and tried to hold back her tears. “Nothing, just tired.”</p>
<p class="western">“Are you still thinking about… him?” asked Pamela.</p>
<p class="western">“I don’t know,” Alia said shaking her head. “It still hurts…”</p>
<p class="western">In a very unlikely gesture the vampiress hugged Alia. “Stupid of me! I hadn’t understood.”</p>
<p class="western">Pam’s arms were a good place to lean to, and Alia relaxed. Then, tears came out unhurriedly. And it was like meeting an old, boring friend and not being annoyed by his rants.</p>
<p class="western">It was some time before her sobbing subsided, but Alia did not feel like excusing herself. She smiled at her friend and wiped her cheeks. Pamela, for once, did not scowl at her and smiled back.</p>
<p class="western">A polite cough interrupted the moment and both turned to see a bowing vampiress and, a few steps behind, a frowning vampire whose eyes glared at Pamela’s arms.</p>
<p class="western">“Excuse me, Regent. The King asks your presence at his table,” the vampiress said. She was the tall and well built female Alia remembered to have already seen around Eric, but tonight she had an unyielding gait that gave her a hard side. Like a security detail.</p>
<p class="western">“I see the king has found his way to our table, instead,” Pamela replied standing up and bowing lightly to Eric. He dismissed his body guard with a finger on her shoulder and stood there.</p>
<p class="western">“You better watch your hands, Pam,” Eric’s tone was cold. Then he turned to Alia, a frown still hanging on his face. “Sookie, you fine?”</p>
<p class="western">Alia nodded. It could have been an answer or a greeting.</p>
<p class="western">“Sookie here was… hurting,” started Pamela with a small smile. “And knowing that both humans and fairies find comfort in bodies proximity, I hugged her to relieve her pain.”</p>
<p class="western">Alia stilled under his gaze. “Nothing, it’s nothing.”</p>
<p class="western">“Sookie…” it was a whisper and Alia was not even sure to have heard it.</p>
<p class="western">“My name is Alia,” she muttered. Then she stood up, smoothed a crease that was not on her dress and left the hall searching for a ladies room.</p>
<p class="western">After ten minutes Pamela joined her and leaned on the vanity table without a word. Alia appreciated her silence.</p>
<p class="western">“Is there a secondary exit?” asked Alia padding her face with a towel.</p>
<p class="western">Pamela’s questioning look was hesitant.</p>
<p class="western">“No, I don’t want…” Alia watched her face in the mirror, “… his compassion.”</p>
<p class="western">Pamela pursed her lips. “I don’t think it was compassion… Alia.”</p>
<p class="western">“Oh, you’re right, after more than forty years he was just bothered to see a weeping human while drinking his blood,” Alia snapped.</p>
<p class="western">“Not even close, fae,” Pamela said. “He was annoyed at me. Because I was touching you.”</p>
<p class="western">“What?” Alia watched her friend, then shook her head. “Why…?”</p>
<p class="western">“That’s a good question, Soo— Alia,” said Pamela. An ambiguous smile appeared on her lips while she continued, “After all, you’re still trouble, my friend.”</p>
<p class="western"> </p>
<p class="western"> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0027"><h2>27. Chapter 27</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Eric had met Alia many times in the past two weeks.</p>
<p>Chance. Coincidence. Fate. He did not believe in randomness or in destiny. However, Eric understood and respected time and recurrences, energies and desires at work. Interwoven forces and intent. Even blind intent.</p>
<p>The last three times she had avoided him altogether. Her move, then. Yet, he was sure to have seen something else beyond her eyes, her thin voice, her hidden, fragrant tears. Fear? Annoyance? Maybe.</p>
<p>Pamela had again urged him to take a stand in respect to the fae. <em>She’s still hurting</em>, her child had said. <em>What do you desire, maker?</em> she had asked in that petulant tone of hers. She knew how to annoy him. Again, he had answered that he did not know. <em>Find it out soon, then</em>. It had sounded like a threat, but for whom?</p>
<p>When he had caught Pamela’s hand on Sookie’s shoulder a thin annoyance had nudged him, but when his child had embraced her a sense of betrayal had wormed its way through his body. He had not meant to get to their table and rebuke Pamela. But there he had gone of his own accord. An unconscious accord, obviously.</p>
<p>He feared what he desired. Now he knew.</p>
<p>A faint chime brought him back to the present time. He was in his study, at home. Karin’s sweet face waved in the screen of his tablet and Eric was relieved to have an excuse to leave behind the thread of thoughts he could not silence anymore.</p>
<p>“Child.”</p>
<p>“My favourite king,” she countered him. “Edington’s second-in-command called to confirm location and security details for the meeting.”</p>
<p>“Good, I heard Rehema.”</p>
<p>“Hunter told me he had no orders from you,” Karin stated, the question implied.</p>
<p>“I was considering to ask Sookie this time,” Eric said. “It’s a mini summit and there will be a lot of people and—”</p>
<p>“You don’t have to justify anything, Eric,” Karin interjected. “Besides, it’s been me to tell you that Alia is more talented and can handle better this kind of gatherings.”</p>
<p>Eric nodded. “Fine. Call her and arrange everything. We’ll be leaving two days before the meeting.”</p>
<p>“Wouldn’t it be better to call her yourself?”</p>
<p>Eric felt distinctly the uneasiness mounting from his guts, then up to the shoulders. “Why? You always handled this… detail personally.”</p>
<p>“Eric, something has to change in this regard. It’s time you face her… and yourself.” The communication was cut abruptly and Eric watched the colourful screen stating the call’s end.</p>
<p>Sometimes working with family was not comfortable.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Cat Island, in Mississippi, was a barrier island off the Gulf Coast, privately owned by the vampire king since 2035. Russell Edgington had turned it into one of his most protected residences, not allowing any commercial operator to land or dock there. Hurricane Bryar, in 2026, had easily eliminated the structures the oil company BP had erected fifteen years earlier to assist in the cleanup of a large oil spill and those that a touristic company had built to host up to two dozen guests. Even the National Park system had left due to lack of funds.</p>
<p>The king’s architects had realised seven dwellings, self-sustainable in terms of energy and water supply, hidden under a flourishing vegetation increased in size and amount since human presence had drastically dropped to none, following the said pivotal hurricane. Edgington had even introduced a small colony of domesticated cats, fed and assisted in his houses, to give a reason to the namesake of the place.</p>
<p>Guests would arrive by private aircraft and would be hosted according to their importance and retinue size. Great Louisiana and Alabama, with an overall entourage of thirty five individuals (vampires, weres, humans and daemons) had been assigned two large houses facing the eastern beach and backed by a dense forest of pine and oak trees. Tennessee and Missouri, with smaller retinues, would occupy a single large house in the southern tip of the T shaped island. Mississippi, who would already be there, had a personal party of ten vampires and two dozen more (vampires and weres) as security. His husband and he would stay at their residence, hidden in the island western forests. The human staff counted over twenty persons and the donors service showed a list of over forty humans.</p>
<p>Alia paled while browsing the file listing almost a hundred humans to screen and monitor for five days, of which three full nights of summit proper. The only good news seemed that Alabama had sent her second-in-command instead of coming herself. At that thought Alia shook her head and tried to focus on the task at hand.</p>
<p>Hunter had already checked the human personnel of their joined retinues before leaving. Therefore Alia started the scrutiny of their were guards during take off. She had occupied the rear seats of the private jet they had boarded at a vampire-owned airport outside of Baton Rouge.</p>
<p>Alia had been informed of the impending assignment two days before, by a very pleased Cataliades. She did not know if being annoyed by the short notice or satisfied at the crown’s show of trust as her godfather had been. At the end she opted for occupying her mind with mundane activities like choosing clothes and studying the information Desmond had left for her.</p>
<p>And now, observing the six were guards who filled a fourth of the plane, she felt contented. She had waken up a few hours before sunset and had already drunk two cups of coffee. As her body’s circadian cycle had easily gotten used to the vampire reversed sleeping hours, her routine had included two hours of sunbathing each day. Therefore she felt centred and energetic. How much it depended on her sheer will and how much had to be ascribed at the prospect of some days in his company, she did not want to explore. Better focusing on the work at hand, avoiding sterile musings.</p>
<p>Robert Rock, a massive male in his late twenties, was old Ford’s pupil and in charge of Eric’s day security during the summit. Alia plunged into the weremind without finesse and roamed freely looking for loyalty issues and overall attitude towards the king and his immediate family. She had decided to screen the royal guard one by one, as their proximity to Eric suggested a thorough reading.</p>
<p>Eric, Pamela, Roxanne and five more vampires occupied three aft cabins, while Alia, Diantha, Latsis and the weres stayed in the largest central area equipped with sofas and low tables. A few humans were in a small forward cabin,napping by the signature of their minds. The screening busied Alia for the entire flight time and gave a light headache to most weres.</p>
<p>“Sookie, wake up,” the whisper caressed her ear and sent a shiver along her spine. Eric’s mind was a calm, warm void at her side, and Alia did not dare opening her eyes.</p>
<p>“I’ve just finished screening your day-guards,” she muttered.</p>
<p>“Thank you,” he said. “Did you eat something?”</p>
<p>Alia opened her eyes to find his blue gaze on her. “No, I…”</p>
<p>“Karin said you tended to forget feeding properly,” Eric continued without diverting his eyes from hers. “Please, don’t do that anymore. You already lost some pounds and—”</p>
<p>“What?”</p>
<p>“—since I saw you the first time, more than four months ago. Eat properly. I need you strong and healthy.” His voice was low and rich, a whisper that fondled her inner organs with a light touch. “Is there something you’d like eating for dinner?”</p>
<p>Alia did not know what to think, therefore asked for a dish she had longed for since a few months. “Jambalaya.”</p>
<p>The following days Alia could barely sleep, but every eight hours someone presented her with a delicious fish meal, wherever she was, in her room, in her assigned office, in a living room or sunbathing on the beach. It was wonderful and infuriating. </p>
<p>She read all the humans in the island, from service personnel to donors, included a few humans some monarchs had in their retinues as assistants or personal meal. It was this last vampire habit, hard to break, that allowed Alia to capture several recent and less fresh memories in those human pets.</p>
<p>The fae did not know what caused this carelessness in most living beings, but vampires (along with fairies, daemons, humans) tended to lower their guard after a situation consolidated in their lives. Humans they fed from could easily became as irrelevant as a piece of furniture and vampires did not associated to them any other skill beyond being a drink and a fuck. They forgot, if ever they took it into consideration, that a brain works incessantly, with or without the conscious participation of its host. The decadent practise to have around humans while discussing business over the phone or in private rooms, just to drink from them and have them perform sexual acts for their guests’ sake, resulted in minds full of images and words connected to those events, even if the human was occupied in activities other than listening and watching purposefully around them. Brains never ceased to function. </p>
<p>Alia had had a full insight in the way the brain worked when Rhiannon had showed her how to dig deeper and deeper in a mind. It was a universe full of every moment the brain had gone through in every plane of consciousness, and unconsciousness. Everything was knitted and mingled at different levels of depth, according to the impact the event had in the mind. Though, following a thread of memories in a distracted or otherwise busied human was not easy. Nor always productive of pertinent material.</p>
<p>What emerged from certain humans in Tennessee’s party was that the king was plotting something with Colorado and something else with a Colorado’s underling, unbeknownst to his master. What was exactly the scheme was quite patchy and vague, from the humans’ point of view. Alia, though, remembered what she had heard up in the space station and noticed the same image in the back of the man’s mind in the Colorado payroll: a classical ballet dancer jumping and spinning with graceful nimbleness. Now, it was not normal to find such an incongruous image, especially given the circumstance that the dancer was suffused with unpredictable and untrustworthy feelings. Alia had discarded it the first time, but now it could mean something.</p>
<p>Alia wrote or dictated to Diantha all she had retrieved during her mental probings and the little daemon organised the information, sometimes patchy and seemingly unrelated, in a spreadsheet. Instead of rows and columns, data appeared in sets and assemblies with eventual correlation and/or paths to link them according to source, subject, timing, situation. What they came out with was submitted to Latsis, who gave his contribution. Then Eric and Pamela checked and discussed it with Alia.</p>
<p>It was the end of the second night of the official meeting, the forth day of intense work for the fae. Alia was hungry and sleepy at the same time, but she could not yet go to sleep without examining the day’s findings with Eric. At four o’clock in the morning the house was not in full swing anymore, and a pleasantly noisy night followed her through corridors and rooms: crickets, owls, night-herons. Most human personnel had left and no one was available to serve her something to nibble and drink. Therefore she set to find a fridge.</p>
<p>The cottage they occupied was indeed a large house. White washed boards that were not wood and old style French windows opening over patios and patches of scented vegetation. The interior decor was what an eighteen century vampire thought as classy and exotic at once. Alia passed rooms and hallways, trying to remember the map of the house from the personnel minds she had read.</p>
<p>But the average chaos of human minds offered her the exact location of cheeses and wines, but not that of the kitchen. For the first time she wished to have a vampire nose: she would have followed the scent of a ripe fruit.</p>
<p>She finally arrived to the kitchen, in the west wing of the house, and perused through countertops, cupboards, fridges. She was thinking about the swirling dancer and something to nibble, trying to compare the memory she had found in the man’s mind up in <em>EOne</em> and the one she had read the day before. There was something she could smell but not see in that image.</p>
<p>A movement at her right side made her turn and a woman in a maid outfit asked if she could be of help. Sure, she was looking for something to munch, even a fruit was fine. And something else started nagging at the back of her mind. It was useless to push for it, though. The brain was also a spoiled child and, when tired, was even more fickle. Maybe tomorrow she would remember something more.</p>
<p>Then the woman, whom Alia was trying to find on her mental spreadsheet, opened a drawer, took a knife and stabbed the telepath.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The night was almost over, but its background music was still rumbling in the air. Far from humans, in fact, animals liked to communicate whatever was that they felt like yelling at each other. Owls, night-heron, pigeons, bats, cicadas, crickets, frogs, squirrels. And more.</p>
<p>Eric closed the window of the sitting room and watched Pamela, who was reading the telepath’s report as commented by Latsis. They were in the northern extension of the house, facing the noisy forest, waiting for the telepath. Reviewing her findings together, at the end of the night, had become a sort of ritual he waited for since sunset.</p>
<p>The fairy had relented and appeared more relaxed in his presence. The previous night she had even laughed at his jokes and joined his child in teasing him for his habit to walk while talking over the phone. For a moment he had forgotten the reason she was there and had let his mind wander in dangerous places.</p>
<p>“Tennessee,” murmured Pamela. “Something is not right here.”</p>
<p>Eric watched the tablet. “She’s late.”</p>
<p>“Tennessee has never been one to take charge.”</p>
<p>“And hasn’t answered my message,” said Eric.</p>
<p>“What did you ask him?” asked Pamela turning her unfolded tablet to have a better view of the spreadsheet she was analysing. </p>
<p>“Sookie. I asked her to meet us here.”</p>
<p>“Kitchen. She was hungry,” said Pamela. “Tennessee is working for someone.”</p>
<p>“That’s what I thought. Nevada, maybe. Adrianne mentioned something.”</p>
<p>“I still wonder why you haven’t eliminated that shit,” said Pamela.</p>
<p>“I made him insignificant,” replied Eric eyeing his handheld. “Better a known enemy than a new one.”</p>
<p>“Bullshit.”</p>
<p>“I don’t like her around in a house full of vampires. Join her.”</p>
<p>“Be my guest,” replied Pamela.</p>
<p>“I wasn’t asking.”</p>
<p>“I was suggesting.”</p>
<p>Eric considered it. Then told himself he was just making sure she was fine.</p>
<p>“But it’s unlikely Nevada has something to offer Tennessee nowadays. I’d check closer.” Eric got to the door in a few lazy paces and turned. “Besides, Tennessee has a long border with Moshup.” He left the room heading west.</p>
<p>It took him less than a minute to feel his blood running cold. All his internal alerts set off at once and he darted along the long corridor to the kitchen, his mind in a murderous haze.</p>
<p>Eric found Alia slumped over the cupboard and the floor, a pool of blood widening at her side, her eyes wide open but opaque. He could barely hold himself. The fae scent was sweetly infiltrating his nostrils, penetrating his body through the skin and running directly up to his head, calling his name.</p>
<p>Eric staggered and tried to clear his mind. And then he saw the housemaid. Leaned over the countertop, a bleeding knife in her hand.</p>
<p>A servant with a knife, an injured fairy and a house full of vampires.</p>
<p>He proceeded rapidly, striving not to succumb to the blood calling. He moved a large antique cupboard to cover the main door to the kitchen and some other furniture to block the two secondary entrances, then kneeled to Sookie’s side.</p>
<p>Her heartbeat was fluttering and her hand over the cut was loosing strength.</p>
<p>“Sookie, look at me,” Eric pressed his hand over hers, trying to stop the blood spill. “You have to drink my blood, as much as you can.” He slashed his wrist and pushed it over her mouth. “Drink.”</p>
<p>Eric cut open his wrist three more times, cradling the fae in his arms and monitoring her body response to his blood. He was holding his breath and his thoughts and did not feel the time passing, nor the tears rolling over his cheeks. After a while the blood loss stopped. Time felt viscous. Spilling over him like a drizzle announcing a storm that was slowly gathering its winds.</p>
<p>At a certain point Eric realised the automatic blinds had shut down and Xeres Macon was shouting and trying to enter the kitchen.</p>
<p>Sookie was still unconscious.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0028"><h2>28. Chapter 28</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>It was awkward. And gratifying.</p><p>Though, Alia told herself that Eric visited her or called everyday because he felt responsible (indeed, the <em>accident</em> had happened when she was working for him) or because she was an asset and he wanted to verify her proper recovering.</p><p>It was almost a week she was back home. Diantha mentioned that Eric had watched over her for three nights after the attempt, giving her blood and assistance. Alia was unconscious all that time, she did not even remember to have drank his blood. But it was normal. The way fairy healed themselves was different from vampires: they slept during the most delicate part of the healing, their mind needing that hiatus to focus on repairing tissues and restore function and harmony to the entire body. Physical closeness was another key part of the healing. Closeness of family, of friends, of lovers. Diantha told her that Eric had been at her bedside the all time, but did not specify if he was just sitting near or on the bed with her. Alia did not ask for details. She feared to know.</p><p>Now she felt incredibly well, better than ever indeed. Her body had regained its vigour and more, without showing scars or impaired functionality in any sense. Probably, Eric’s blood had done its magic and the effect was greater because she was fae now. Whatever. And they were even. He had caused the accident and he had healed her.</p><p>The accident.</p><p>It had been a deliberate attempt to her life. How stupid of her: a telepath hired to discover secret plots, useful commercial information, hostile attitudes who could not even protect herself. She had been so engrossed in her cogitation that she had not paid attention to the surroundings.</p><p>Now that she thought about it without being clouded by pain or emotion she reminded the maid, her wild eyed demeanour, her mechanic movements, her stare into the void. A sort of glamour. Deep but clumsy, as it was too evident. She had to question the woman and see if she could find anything. And then she realised suddenly that she had not seen the woman before, she was not among the humans she had read the first day in Cat Island. Or after. Somehow she had avoided detection.</p><p>A gentle knock at the French window of her bedroom made her turn toward the terrace, and she saw him. A sudden cramp in her chest or stomach, she could not tell, clouded her sight. His middle length hair ruffled by the evening breeze, his sportswear hugging his long body, he waited to be ushered inside with a distant smile. It reminded Alia of the many times he had come to her house in Bon Temps to spend the night with her.</p><p>“I didn’t expect you,” Alia said opening the door.</p><p>“Yesterday night you told me you felt very good,” Eric said coming inside, “and I wanted to see it myself, and to explain everything to you.”</p><p>Alia nodded and blushed. “Diantha told me.”</p><p>“And I wanted to tell you myself,” he stated searching her eyes for anger or annoyance. He found an unusual shyness complemented with the reddening of her face and neck.</p><p>“Thank you.” It was a whisper but Alia knew he had heard it perfectly.</p><p>“Why? You know I’d do anything for you.” The words were out of his mouth before he could check and edit them, but he felt the truth in them. It was like always with her, he could not help it.</p><p>“…anything?”</p><p>It was a moment and Eric noticed a shift in her attitude, his blood in her told him the placid docility was retreating and something else was surging in its place.</p><p>“Anything?” Alia repeated with an ominous tone.</p><p>Eric knew better than replying to the rhetoric question and the nuances implied, but he could not really place the source nor the end of them.</p><p>“You’d do anything for me, eh?” Now her voice was high pitched and definitely angry. “Anything but staying with me! Anything but keeping your promises. Anything!”</p><p>Eric was overwhelmed by her resentment. The force of her words pushing on him as a solid wall. And then Alia lost control of her mind and body, completely.</p><p>“You left me, Eric. You left me and went to Oklahoma. You told me she wouldn’t have won, but you cut me out from your life with a single sentence: <em>this is yours no more</em>. Do you remember? Sure you remember, your fucking perfect memory will have put it in a dumpster at the bottom of your head. You rejected me, threw me away as a useless rag-doll. <em>This is yours no more</em>. Why did you give me your blood now? Why?”</p><p>Eric stood frozen in the middle of the room.</p><p>“Why? Oh, yes. The fucking contract. Not because Freyda was rich and powerful, or annoyingly beautiful. No, a fucking contract signed by a dead vampire. So strong to force you to dump me, your stubborn and whiny human wife. Maybe you could have kept me as a whore, remember? But, at the end, it was better to disappear and leave me back, someone else would have picked up the pieces, eh? Yes, you even asked Sam to stay away from me, knowing perfectly he would have done exactly the contrary. But who cared? You had your fucking long life ahead of you to find other humans to please you, why stick with the ageing boring human?”</p><p>Alia’s yells pierced his ears, as the objects she was throwing at him. It was not the negligible impact of a lamp, a vase, a glass or whatever she found around her, it was the feeling attached to the action. It was forceful of a strength gathered in years of pain and Eric felt the full blow of it.</p><p>“You went ahead to your fucking life in Oklahoma and didn’t care about my desperation, my pitiful depression, my lonely life without anything to live for. Oh, yes, you told me that <em>this is what has to be done</em>, how stupid of me to believe that you would have fought for me, for us. There was never us, just your fucking contract. I was in pain, you left me with nothing, but that was what it had to be done, right? It was in the best interest of who? Ah, yes, you left me with a watchdog, and she really helped me, but that was an unexpected by-product, right?”</p><p>Alia was crying now and her red eyes did not leave Eric’s face for a second.</p><p>“Emptiness, Eric, that’s what you left me with, plenty of nothing and fucking hollow words. <em>You may not be my wife in name, but you are in my heart</em>. So touching! But where was your heart when I wanted to die, why didn’t I feel it anywhere near me? Oh, you also told me <em>not to pay attention to what happened</em>, right? It really helped! You kicked me out of your life but I had to ignore it, uh? Everything was for the best, you went to Oklahoma and nothing else mattered… You destroyed my life, but it was for the best, uh? You should have killed me straightforwardly, it would have been more honest and better, really. Much better than the slow death you left me with…”</p><p>Alia crouched down on the floor and her slim frame quivered under bouts of different feelings. Despair, resentment, betrayal, emptiness. All rolled one upon the other and over Eric like a toxic black tide.</p><p>Eric kneeled down and reached out. “Sookie…”</p><p>Alia lifted the head, her face hard. “Don’t touch me, don’t dare.”</p><p>And then Eric smelled her scent. It was not the sweet intoxicating bouquet she had exuded a few days earlier. It was the strong, pungent perfume of a fairy ready to fight, the aroma that pervaded the battlefields and drove vampires mad and incoherent with blood lust.</p><p>Eric recoiled and called all his strength to get out of the room closing the French window behind him. He breathed deeply in the black night and looked for his tablet, fumbling to find the number he needed.</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>Alia opened her eyes and a black warmness enveloped her.</p><p>Where. What. How. Not exactly questions but more than ideas. A form of curiosity. Then everything came back to her and she remembered. An invisible hand clenched her guts as to extract all the juice and she felt ashamed.</p><p>“I can’t wait around for you, fae!”</p><p>Alia turned and a known face peeped into a cone of light at her side. A time battered expression of concern and amusement.</p><p>“So, you’re a full fae, now. Odd… you’ve always been… an interesting creature.” Amy Ludwig narrowed her little eyes and hovered over Alia. “How’s your head now?”</p><p>Alia raised on her elbows and winced. “It feels like a ball of lead… spinning on several axes at the same time.”</p><p>Ludwig’s laugh was scratchy. “Good. Too much tension. Too much strength. Too much other things. Now, rest.”</p><p>“… Eric?” Alia whispered blushing.</p><p>“Your vampire is out there, as hopeful as a whore in a church.”</p><p>“He’s not my vampire,” said Alia, her voice thin.</p><p>“Mmm, then how is it that your blood has more of his dna than his own?” The diminutive creature rummaged in a doctor’s bag as if fishing for something.</p><p>“I’ve been injured a few days ago and he… he… gave me—”</p><p>“Mmm, that old bastard doesn’t give his blood lightly. You said injured? I didn’t see any… evidence.”</p><p>“I healed.”</p><p>“And he, the not-your-vampire, pays me handsomely for my time,” the doctor chuckled showing crooked yellow teeth.</p><p>“What… what happened?” Alia finally asked.</p><p>“I already told you. Too much tension all at once. Your little heart skipped a few beats and you fainted. Your scent had a spike, dangerous with a vampire around, you should pay more attention. Northman is old, that’s why he could resist.”</p><p>“I always mask my scent,” countered Alia, “I don’t know how—”</p><p>“Too much pressure in your little head,” another eerie giggle, “you freaked out and forgot to hold off your smell.”</p><p>Alia nodded and took the vial with a few pills the doctor was handing her.</p><p>“Put under your tongue if the tension comes back,” Ludwig finished packing her tools. “I’ve already given you one, I don’t think you need more. Just in case. May I let him in?”</p><p>“Uh?”</p><p>“The not-your-vampire,” Ludwig nodded toward the door. “He’s quite a pain in the back, and an unsettled vampire is not someone I’d like to stay around.”</p><p>Alia panicked. “What am I supposed—”</p><p>“I’m not a couple counsellor, fae,” the doctor turned and walked to the door.</p><p>The tall figure of the vampire towered over the doctor. “Thank you, Ludwig. Send your invoice to my secretary.”</p><p>Then they were alone. Again.</p><p>He strode across the room and crouched at her side.</p><p>She sat leaning against the headboard of her large bed. It felt awkward to have him in her bedroom, and the shame for what had transpired before gripped her throat.</p><p>“Sorry,” she whispered, more a breath than an articulated sound. “I shouldn’t have lashed out at you.”</p><p>He shrugged. “How are you now?” His voice was measured.</p><p>“Fine. I’m sorry. Really,” Alia started weeping silently. “It’s the past, it shouldn’t bother any more. I feel ashamed and promise it won’t happen again.”</p><p>Eric wiped her cheeks. “It’s my past, too. And neither I feel well about it.”</p><p>Alia kept weeping, calmly. “Sorry. This weeping is nothing, just… I can’t stop it, but it’s all right.”</p><p>“Would you listen?”</p><p>She watched Eric’s face and nodded, not understanding what he meant.</p><p>“All I told you then it’s true. I told you that not matter what happened in public you shouldn’t have doubted my love for you and my determination to protect your welfare as much as I was able in those circumstances. And I did it as much as I could. You don’t imagine the pain I feel knowing now that <em>that much</em> was not enough for you. You were always in my heart, Sookie. As much as I knew my love was not reciprocated in the same way, I loved you and did my best to—”</p><p>“But I loved you!” Alia interjected. “Why do you think I don’t? Even after I broke the bond I told you that I loved you.”</p><p>“Yes. Exactly. You doubted what you felt for me, the bond breaking was just another tangible way to show your… reluctance to yield your heart to me. I—”</p><p>“No, Eric. I loved you, and after the bond… I would have wanted it back, but with all that... you never told me what was happening and you were so distant…”</p><p>Eric silenced her with a finger on her mouth. “Hush! Just hear me out, will you?” He sat on the bed, and carried on. “Perhaps, it was my fault. You had no experience in romantic relationships, and neither did I. Probably I was too enthusiast and overwhelmed you. I didn’t want to aggravate our… marriage with the turmoils that ravaged the vampire society at that time, but I… behaved wrongly. I see it now. But it was never that I didn’t want to share with you my life, I just wanted to protect you from the wildest aspects of it. As for the marriage… it was stupid of me not to ask you properly and explain to you the rationale behind it. It was not a political choice. Never. But you Sookie, you certainly didn’t help either.”</p><p>He inhaled deeply. “We were together and you didn’t want to come to live with me. My house, your house was not a problem… We were not teenagers, I needed you in my life… to wake up with you, to share a house with you, everyday facts, not only spare time. My mistake was to… impose a marriage to you, but it was a move to protect you…”</p><p>“But I never asked to… break our marriage. I’ve been harsh some times but never—”</p><p>“Hush! You broke the bond, our sacred bond!, without even warn me! You cut yourself out of my life abruptly… I… I…”</p><p>“I’m sorry,” Alia whispered.</p><p>“… but I love you and thought you were young, undisciplined, immature and would have understood once… once we had the chance to be together. But you never gave me that chance. Never. Really. You forgave any twisted, evil behaviour from Compton, but never accepted or forgave my… mistakes. It was taxing, Sookie.”</p><p>Alia’s silent weeping subsided, giving tears the time to dry on her face.</p><p>“Then, the takeover… Victor… Ocella… Freyda… all became too complicated, and things got out of my, our hands… Truly, Sookie, the contract was very… important for vampires… strong… and it was arrogant of me thinking to be able to round it without…”</p><p>Eric ran a hand through his hair. He took a glance around the room and found so little of Sookie in it. Furnishings were minimal and rather unfeminine. Only a dress -an iridescent one made of a fine, light fabric- dangling from a hanger over the cabinet’s door betrayed her presence.</p><p>“You know, I’ve always wondered why my maker came into my life at that time. I… discovered it, in time…”</p><p>His words trailed off.</p><p>Alia bit her lower lip and interrupted the silence. “Why did he come?”</p><p>“Someone called him and proposed to… solve his problem with Alexei. That is finding them both a place to live notwithstanding the boy’s wild habits.”</p><p>Alia watched him with eyes wide open. Ocella had marked the beginning of the downward spiral that had precipitated all those events which led to their divorce. Hesitant, she asked, “Who?”</p><p>Eric’s blank face in front of her was like a distorted mirror in which she saw his concealed tension.</p><p>“Compton,” he said.</p><p>Her face showed incredulity and a mounting rage, and she knew then that she had always suspected that. It had just lingered at the edge of her awareness, too painful to acknowledge.</p><p>“Why?” she asked.</p><p>“To eliminate me and have the time to build his way back to you,” Eric stated and watched her reaction closely. “To curry some favour with the new master.”</p><p>Alia saw Eric straighten his back and brace himself. He expected a denial and a fierce defence of her first lover, she could read it in the hard lines of his countenance. That had been her habit.</p><p>“Peru,” she muttered instead.</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“He went to Peru or around there, I don’t remember. He was very excited by his findings and once he said that he had something up his sleeve… he was so cheerful. He said something about the fact that you were not a problem anymore.” Alia covered the mouth with a hand and cursed. She did not know if it was rage, pain or remorse. Maybe all of them. Maybe just what remains after the last standing soldier defending a position collapses.</p><p>She continued, “Maybe he even betrayed Sophie-Anne. The takeover was so smooth, and he pledged too eagerly to that worm, and licked his ass at every turn.”</p><p>Eric stared at her.</p><p>“I thought that either, afterward,” he said.</p><p>“I hope he had a miserable life, the only one he deserved, and when I meet him again… he’ll taste my sword.” Alia uttered the words calmly.</p><p>Eric blinked. “I met him after I took the kingdom, and I saw to it that he had no other chances to waste space in this world.”</p><p>“Did you kill him?”</p><p>“Karin,” he answered.</p><p>“What a pity. It would have been only fair that it were me to dispatch him.”</p><p>“Would you have killed him?” Eric asked after a while. “In cold blood?”</p><p>Alia’s gaze was distant. “He played with my life, with your life, and that of those who suffered because of the events he caused. I would have gladly put an end to his useless life myself. Not in cold blood, though. In a very pissed off way.”</p><p>Eric was silent. His face did not give away his thoughts but she could almost see them. More imagination than a real reading, maybe. Or just a wishful thinking.</p><p>“Very unSookie-like, I’d say,” he said.</p><p>Alia locked her eyes on his. “One of my teacher told me once that Sookie… grew up and cracked open her cocoon becoming Alia, ready to morph again in whatever I wanted to be.”</p><p>“Alia…”</p><p>She felt a shiver of pleasure as her new name rolled out of his tongue, lingering around him. </p><p>“…is a name potentially full of meanings. In old Latin it means <em>other things</em>. It may hints at different sides of your being, at the many layers you can discover in yourself, at—”</p><p>“—all the roads I have to walk to find a balance among my many natures, at all the obstacles I have to remove to be finally at peace,” she continued wiping a cheek.</p><p>“Is that your plan?”</p><p>“I have no choice, do I? And I have the time now… and it’s a good thing I have much ‘cause I proved to be a slow learner.” She attempted a smile but did not know if it showed up correctly.</p><p>Eric smiled too. “It’s a wonderful plan, Alia.”</p><p>“Hope to live up to it.”</p><p>“You’ve always been strong and resilient. You’ll succeed in whatever you try.”</p><p>The fae nodded, and felt a weird dizziness. “Thank you.”</p><p>The atmosphere had changed and Alia felt compelled to fill it with more neutral words.</p><p>“We have to talk about what happened back at Cat Island…”</p><p>Eric nodded.</p><p>“… but now I need to rest. Another moment?”</p><p>Eric took it for the dismissal it was and stood up. “Sure. Call me when you’re ready.” He stalled a few seconds, then added, “See you soon.”</p><p>
  
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>
  
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  </div></div>
<a name="section0029"><h2>29. Chapter 29</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Maximilian Kainz, regent Ravenscroft’s second-in-command, would land at the city airport and be heading to the royal residence in less than an hour. Northman knew the vampire liked the new orleanian atmosphere and surely counted to spend some time visiting clubs with live-music and vampire dens. His assignment, as outlined by his child, was not demanding and consisted of representing the regent at the three nights quarterly meeting with the king and all his sheriffs, and testing two recruits for the regent’s personal crew.</p>
<p>Kainz had worked almost twenty years with Northman, at the beginning of his reign, as interface between the crown and the former regent’s employees, then as advisor and favourite sparring partner of <em>the Hammer</em>. Northman remembered him with pleasure. He had learned to appreciate the vampire and his style, especially the relative flexibility and leeway he left to his underlings.Northman had seen how the Austrian vampire had adopted his same techniques to forge loyal and trusty soldiers, changing his behaviour to better reach the required outcome. When Northman’s child had offered him a position as her second, Kainz had accepted just to follow his personal rule not to stay too long in a comfortable position. He liked changes and challenges, and the king’s vivacious child had granted both. Northman had liked it too.</p>
<p>However, he was glad to meet him from time to time, and always reserved some time for the two of them. Training with different fighters was beneficial to keep quick and sharp reflexes and satisfy his martial appetites. Kainz shared this view, too.</p>
<p>Northman’s welcoming, therefore, was on his private training ground and involved a traditional combat with blades and sticks, then a free engagement in his special gravity-free chamber.</p>
<p>Kainz took the expected sound beating and learned a few more tricks. Northman was a superb fighter and a generous teacher, tapping into his long years of practise to dry his style to fewer and fewer moves. Only those needed. Lethal. Usually, an average match lasted a matter of minutes but the explanation, essential as his style, involved at least a couple of hours of more not so amiable thrashing. A fine treat for Kainz’s palate.</p>
<p>After they had a shower, they sat in a private sitting room and discussed some annoying events happening on the Tennessee border in the last few months. It was the reason the regent had chosen to stay at her place and meet some Mississippi’s sheriffs who were experiencing the same problems.</p>
<p>“Are you seeing a scheme, or do you still consider those random episodes?” asked Eric sipping some water.</p>
<p>“Still not clear,” replied Kainz thoughtful. “Sometimes it seems to appear a direction, then it happens something that doesn’t fit. At the moment it’s just a pain in the ass, no more.”</p>
<p>“What direction, exactly?”</p>
<p>“Two, to be precise. First, one of our neighbours, namely Missouri or Tennessee, is pocking to cause a strife of low/medium intensity with our neighbouring allies,” Kainz offered. “Second, another agent -and I’d say no vampire- is trying the same, trying to push one against the other blindly, without knowing our real ties to each other.”</p>
<p>“Mmm… Tennessee is surely moving uncharacteristically. Missouri seems little interested in these dangerous games. Strangely so, I’d say. Do we have spies in his territory?”</p>
<p>“Pam is trying to reactivate a few contacts. She asked me to inquire with you about Thalia’s availability in the nearest future,” the vampire frowned. “Your child has a wild side…”</p>
<p>Eric lifted a brow.</p>
<p>“I’d never seek Thalia’s… services. Too unpredictable and undisciplined to my taste.”</p>
<p>Eric smiled. “Plausible deniability, Max. And a fine tracker, too.”</p>
<p>“A wild card,” he countered. “At any rate, let her know if—”</p>
<p>Heavy footsteps halted at the door and a light knocking followed.</p>
<p>“Come in, Roxanne,” Eric said.</p>
<p>The vampiress came in and bowed briefly. “It’s lady Alia, sir.”</p>
<p>Eric signalled to continue.</p>
<p>“Diantha just called. She found the fairy unconscious in her kitchen.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Walking around the living room, Eric watched as dr Ludwig licked again Alia’s wrist. Next the doctor pricked a finger tip and drew a droplet of blood, licked it readily and savoured its taste.</p>
<p>“Dr Ludwig!” Eric’s voice swept the room as an icy gust of wind. “Haven’t you finished yet?”</p>
<p>“Cool down, Northman,” the diminutive doctor seemed perplexed. “Don’t you smell anything?”</p>
<p>Eric and Kainz automatically inhaled deeply and held the air for a few minutes, then exhaled.</p>
<p>Eric narrowed his eyes and said, “Very faint but unmistakably fairies, but not Soo— Alia.”</p>
<p>Kainz confirmed. “Fairies. Two, maybe three.”</p>
<p>Alia began to wake up, inhaling the vapour coming out from a vial Ludwigwas swinging under her nose. She opened her eyes and let them wander through the room and the faces around her. “What the hell…?”</p>
<p>“Aren’t you happy to see me, fae?” quipped dr Ludwig. “You’re fine, though.”</p>
<p>Alia stared at Eric. “What happened?”</p>
<p>“I hoped you told me,” Eric replied. “Diantha found you unconscious in the kitchen.”</p>
<p>Alia stood up and Eric helped her to a chair. “I was in the garden, sunbathing. Then, I came inside to have some tea and… and…” She wore an unbuttoned shirt over a bikini, and now felt exposed and cold.</p>
<p>“What are you watching?” Eric snapped to Kainz who was openly inspecting Alia’s body.</p>
<p>“Just to see if there were damages…” Kainz’ voice trailed off and he backed a few steps.</p>
<p>Eric growled and stepped between Alia and the vampire, keeping his gaze on the fae. “How are you?” His voice was nervous while his eyes scanned her body. Then he nuzzled her hair and inhaled. “Who were your fairy guests?”</p>
<p>Alia shook her head and swallowed hard. “I was alone.”</p>
<p>“Why did you faint? What happened?” Eric continued buttoning up her shirt. “Are you injured?”</p>
<p>“Northman, are you deaf and blind?” dr Ludwig’s harsh voice cut in. “Your fairy fainted but no apparent wound mars her body, and she is fine.”</p>
<p>“You may go, then,” Eric said, “you too Kainz, and tell Karin to organise night and day security for Alia. Ford’s pupil can replace Xeres as my guard and she can come here. Also a vampiress.”</p>
<p>“Yes, sir. I’ll send back a guard for tonight.”</p>
<p>Kainz left without other words, noticing the small creature had just disappeared.</p>
<p>“I’ll be here till your guard come,” said Eric once they were alone.</p>
<p>“I don’t nee—” Alia stopped as the vampire frowned, then added, “Eric, I don’t remember nothing, I came inside and… everything is blurred, I woke up and you were here. What time is it?”</p>
<p>“Midnight.”</p>
<p>“Then, I’ve been unconscious for over six hours,” she reckoned. “Fuck!”</p>
<p>“Alia,” Eric started, “this is the second attempt in less than two weeks, and the target is clearly you. Is there something you’re not telling?”</p>
<p>“What do you mean?”</p>
<p>“Do you have enemies, in Faery?” asked Eric.</p>
<p>“No, I don’t think so. House Briga—” Alia was silent for a while. “Mmm, let’s say that the power in Faery is… more democratic now, sort of. And we don’t have… declared enemies. Not that I can think of, at least.”</p>
<p>“For the time being, then, you’ll have guards night and day and—”</p>
<p>“Eric, I—”</p>
<p>“That’s another side of your past behaviour that always made it difficult to protect you: you refused to accept help even if it was evident you needed it,” Eric interjected with a resigned voice.</p>
<p>Alia closed her eyes and sighed. “Yes, it’s true. I like to be independent and not to lean on others for my… needs. Yet, I’m not irresponsible. I’ll see to my protection and pay for the help I need. Besides, why are you doing it?”</p>
<p>Eric’s voice carried an old tiredness. “I don’t want… I wouldn’t like to tell your family that you’ve being killed under my watch.”</p>
<p>“But I’m not under your watch!”</p>
<p>“You are the scion of a powerful fairy family who lives in my kingdom. Don’t you think that your relatives would ask me to justify my negligent conduct if I fail to protect you?” Eric was openly annoyed now. “And I don’t want to see you in pain, injured or dead. Is that so hard to understand?”</p>
<p>“Why?” asked Alia after a while.</p>
<p>Eric watched her squarely. “Because I care for you. You may like it or not but that’s the reason. You never accepted this protective behaviour of mine, but that’s what I feel like to do for the people I care about.”</p>
<p>“Eric,” Alia stood up. Her demeanour seemed uncertain or just tired. “I need a closure between us to move on and live my life. Would you help me?”</p>
<p>Eric nodded. It was now then. He did not know if he was ready but his children were right. He had to face it. “Yes. But I need to clear the air about a few things before.”</p>
<p>“That’s exactly what it has to be done,” Alia prepared two glasses of water and went back to the sofa, sat and patted the place at her side. “Come and sit down, if you can spare a few minutes now.”</p>
<p>“Sure,” Eric said thinking that Karin would have understood and chaired the meeting in his absence.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Eric did not really think that talking was a way to make less bitter his past or more palatable her reasons. The true path to follow was accept what had happened and face its consequences without illusions. He had accepted it, given that the past was exactly that, past, and most of all it did not exist any more.Though, he had some problem facing its consequences, especially when those consequences were alive, scented, shapely, witty and faced him with sad blue eyes. And he was also tired, very tired. Thus they talked.</p>
<p>Alia offered her point of view on many circumstances they had gone through, and it appeared that she had lived entire weeks without knowing what was happening to him, where was her place in his world. Relying on her instinct had not been enough and lending an ear to her friends did not prove the best choice. The whole cluviel d’or story emerged as a more faceted episode than he could have ever imagined, and the fact that, after Merlotte’s resurrection, when she went to Fangtasia, to tell him that Sam was only a friend and not her love interest, Eric refused to see her, that had been a hard blow for her. Then she went through the divorce as a nightmare she could not wake up from, finding herself alone and miserable. Alone and in the cold.</p>
<p>“I begin to truly understand that having lived for so long as you did changes your general perspectives and attitudes toward a lot of average human tenets. Though, as one of your children said beautifully, what we really have is only the present: not the past, already gone, nor the future, yet to come. And I don’t want to waste my present remembering a past that still makes me suffer: I prefer to know what it had been like for you and then shelve it as the experience that shaped what I am now.” Alia sat in a corner of the sofa with her legs folded at her side, trying to conceal the sadness in her voice with a faltering smile.</p>
<p>Eric felt the impact of her words as a slow-motion avalanche against his chest. Heavy. Relentless. It left him numb. He had a lot of questions but did not want to start a questioning nor to recriminate about their past. Besides, a part of him had expected this and now did not want to stir up muddy waters with more words.</p>
<p>“Just tell me one thing now,” he started after long minutes of silence. “Sometimes I felt like you never accepted fully what I am, vampire. With a nature that dictates my needs and appetites. Sometimes I felt your hypocrisy when you asked something of me and then despised me for what I did. Where do you stand now?”</p>
<p>Alia bit her bottom lip, nervous. Tired, battered, confused but there. Eric could feel her heaviness through his blood in her. But they were trying to move on, the only way to survive an inedible past.</p>
<p>“I fell in love with you when you were naked and exposed at my place. Do you remember? Vampire but without the conditioning coming from your past, no burden of a hard life to hinder your feelings. We truly lived our present without a past to haunt us or a future to lure and divert our actions. So, you see, your vampire nature has never been a problem.”</p>
<p>He let her reorganise her thoughts, feeling her turmoil and hesitation.</p>
<p>When she resumed, her talking was stilted and painful. Eric did not understand her need to go through all that past again. But she needed that and he listened.</p>
<p>“When you recovered your memory and lost that other memory, that of the little life we had shared, I felt it was not right to simply tell you what had transpired. I… I… didn’t want… to add the burden of a memory you didn’t… really owned. I wanted to be in your life, sure, but from inside of you… I wanted it to come from you, that part of you that I already knew and… loved.</p>
<p>“I waited. But you hid from me. Yes, yes,” Alia lifted a hand to silence him, “I know it was the curse… but you stayed clear from me for… months. Yet it was a sobering time. I… I… longed for you. But I wanted you whole, the core and the shell. And I grew to like the shell, too.</p>
<p>“But it was frightening… for I discovered that some… aspects of your nature, the most violent and cold, were not so… far from my self. I fought and killed, do you remember? And I despised myself for what I did. Though I did it again, and again. It was me, and I feared that part of me, of… you. The… the… Victor’s death marked a moment of… hard understanding. I couldn’t accept what I’d done… what you’d done… the joy that accompanied those deaths was… unbearable.”</p>
<p>Alia swallowed and stopped. “I never really despised you… I was discovering truths about myself… no one helped me, not even you. And Claudine was gone.”</p>
<p>Then Alia waved a hand, as to swipe away all those memories. “Vampire. Being vampire without choosing it it’s terrifying, I think. When you first mentioned turning me I was terrified and horrified. Do you blame me for that? Would you have chosen it, if asked? Maybe you would have wanted some time to ponder it, understand it, accept or refuse it. Choose means also to know what are your possibilities. I had no time. And I don’t know what I would have really chosen if given the choice. A real choice.”</p>
<p>She stared at Eric and said, “Hunter thought it over for ten years, maybe more, then accepted it. Not only that, he chooses it, wants it now. We… we had no time, Eric. But I never despised you. I… I just needed more time to know you… to know us.”</p>
<p>Alia closed her eyes and muttered, “But there was no time, and that was not our choice. That’s all. And all this doesn’t really matter now. I don’t know. Just… don’t think I didn’t want you whole, man and vampire. Because that is what you are: man and vampire. Do not ignore that.”</p>
<p>Then she added coyly, “Like I am woman and fae… and something else too.” She smiled. “And I like it… finally.”</p>
<p>Then and only then she felt a burden dissipating in her stomach, as if she had ingested a venom, fought it and then expelled it from her body. She was tired of an exhaustion beyond her body and mind’s possibility to endure more. She just wanted to collapse and wake up in another world. And finding her ground again. Alone.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>She woke up late that morning. Alone in a deserted house.</p>
<p>And she felt rested and energetic. She knew it was the after-effect of the previous night chat, and that it would have vanished shortly as the life’s unchanged challenges would have knocked again at her door. But it was a perfect moment and she refused to let it go.</p>
<p>She had ushered Eric soon after the end of her monologue as she had felt that he could have marred the occasion with a very male interpretation of her words. And she did not need that. She wanted to savour the moment as long as possible. As it could be done only alone.</p>
<p>She left the bed and took care of herself in a deliberate unhurried way. Lovingly. She needed to find and love herself as only she could do. It was the same old non-secret of all cultures, human, fairy, vampire, daemon and whatever laid out there that she did not know yet. First love yourself, then see to the rest. And given that there was no rest to attend to, Alia loved her longer.</p>
<p>She was still upstairs when she felt another presence.</p>
<p>She descended to the living room. Her cousin sat on the sofa filling the place with his usual proprietary attitude. He was also handsome, irritatingly so. But it was his trademark and she had gone past it long ago.</p>
<p>All her men had been very good looking, indeed. She was very average girl in this: she was attracted by beautiful men as every decent woman, and basked in it effortlessly. What was astonishing to her was that those same gorgeous men were attracted by her. It was not that she was ugly, but her beauty was a domesticated version of the thing: she did not feature any exotic or pleasantly peculiar characteristic. Her regular face sported normally shaped blue eyes, small nose and full pink lips with a childish look that age had not erased. Nice and fresh, not impressive. Moreover, she did not master any makeup art and therefore could not add any particular touch to her ordinary look.</p>
<p>Her body, now toned and tanned, was equipped with all the curvy things nature had envisaged for women, breasts featuring among the most visible items. But her bottom -albeit round and firm- was not up to the task of competing with that of the models in her times; and she suspected those bottoms were still fashionable these days. Her legs, finally, were long but strong, surely not the thin sticks mannequins showed in magazines or catwalks. She walked, ran, jumped, squatted with those legs, did not limit her exertions to cross them on a sofa:muscles twitched at every step. In other terms, she was not a delicate flower who threatened to break without a man to hold her. She had never been so, and now less than ever.</p>
<p>Maybe, she mused approaching Aengus, it was exactly that that challenged men. As for her cousin in particular, Alia did not know what to think of him. The last time they had met it had not ended pleasantly and she was nervous.</p>
<p>“Aengus,” she greeted him with a nod, “what do I owe your visit to?”</p>
<p>“Alia,” he spoke looking at her, “you look very well.”</p>
<p>“Indeed, I feel very well, thank you,” she walked past the sofa heading to the kitchen. “Would you like something to eat? I’m having my breakfast now.”</p>
<p>“Yes,” he stood up and followed her. “I heard about some life attempts and wanted to make sure you were fine.”</p>
<p>Alia fussed with coffee maker and toaster. “Who… told you?”</p>
<p>His silence was as disturbing as the meaning implied.</p>
<p>“Are you keeping tabs on me?”</p>
<p>“Obviously,” he replied easily, “you’re mine.”</p>
<p>Alia turned lifting a brow. “And since when did you decide I was yours?”</p>
<p>“You’re a Brigant, fae,” he said approaching her, “and Brigant is my house, mine.”</p>
<p>“Ah, a family thing,” Alia marked her mocking tone harder. “I’m touched.”</p>
<p>“Maybe I should touch you to make your memory fresher.” He was behind her pushing his body on her back.</p>
<p>“I remember we agreed to stop with that,” Alia moved sideways to avoid his embrace.</p>
<p>“I don’t recall any such deal, Alia.” He was again at her back pushing her body against the fridge. “What happened?”</p>
<p>She disentangled from his grip and lifted her head to face his. “What do you think? Appearing at your leisure and fucking me as you like?”</p>
<p>“What’s wrong with that?”</p>
<p>“Nothing till I agreed,” Alia countered. “But maybe I had my fill of it.”</p>
<p>Surprise and rage flickered through his face, then a placid expression set in. “It’s the vampire, isn’t it?”</p>
<p>“There’s no vampire, Aengus.”</p>
<p>“I smell him on you. You had your ways with him?”</p>
<p>“He gave me his blood, Aengus. I was severely wounded,” she said angrily. “But this is not the point, really.”</p>
<p>“His blood?” Aengus’ face trembled letting out his fairy fighting features. “His fucking blood?” </p>
<p>“Did you hear me, Aengus? I was badly wounded and he saved me, and he was here yesterday night when something happened and I fainted in my kitchen. And there was fairy scent everywhere, not mine.”</p>
<p>Alia’s rage had fully surfaced and she yelled, “And where were you? It’s a fairy attempt, it seems, and I’m family, no? What’s happening in Faery?”</p>
<p>“Fairies do not take vampire <em>blood</em>.” Aengus stated marking the word blood with a disgusted grimace, then added, “I will see to it if it’s a fairy thing.”</p>
<p>“Good.” Alia’s reply was dry.</p>
<p>“And we have no deal whatsoever, fae,” Aengus’ hands went to her sides and pulled her over him, crashing his mouth on her lips and forcing his tongue inside.</p>
<p>“Aengus,” she said pushing him back gently. “What does it mean this?”</p>
<p>“I’ll show you,” he whispered in her lips pushing his erection in her lower belly, then lowered his hands on her bottom and lifted her on the countertop. Now his erection pushed her sex and she felt his hot breath on the neck. “I want you, now.”</p>
<p>“What is it, Aengus?” Alia repeated unfazed. “What is the meaning of these recurrent… hard-ons?”</p>
<p>His mouth was on her ear and he whispered, “I want you, Alia.”</p>
<p>She realised that a few months earlier the mere breathing of those words would have had her melted in his arms, wet and hot. Now, though, she was in love with herself and wanted more.</p>
<p>“Not enough, Aengus. I’ve explored sex with you fully and very satisfyingly. Terminally satiating, though. I need no more.”</p>
<p>Aengus stepped back and watched her with confusion and something else she could not identify. It lasted some long seconds, then he disappeared with a puff while the smell of his sexual arousal lingered in her nose for a long time. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Alia was sitting on the sofa in her living room. A large extension at the back of the house, facing the clearing and, behind it, the lake. Wall mounted sliding glass doors let the unkempt garden coming inside, with its fading greens and the swamp’s sharp smells. The fae lost many an afternoon in there. Diantha’s sitting room was at the entrance side. The daemon had called to let her know she was staying at Latsis’ place and the werecougar Eric had sent, a female called Xeres, was patrolling the house surroundings since that morning.</p>
<p>She had a simple, sharp mind. Focused and determined as a machine running a programme. And she was Eric’s personal day-guard whom he had assigned to her till she could organise her own team of guards. Alia had the instinct to rebel against his imposition, but dying for her own stubbornness was definitely a stupid choice she did not want to adopt.</p>
<p>She had spent the afternoon and the evening still carrying on her morning plan of taking care of herself. After her cousin had left, she had laid in the garden under the pale sun. Sunbathing was a means of recharging her energy and a way to relax her mind. It was roughly the fae version of a trip to the spa and a session with a psychoanalyst.</p>
<p>It was half an hour beyond sunset and Xeres was coming closer to the house with a vampire. Alia relaxed. She was a reserved Indian vampiress she had met some decades ago in Fangtasia, Indira. Alia smiled as she read that Indira was excited to meet her and wondered if all the rumours about the fae were true. The vampiress had arrived directly from Shreveport at Eric’s order and she…</p>
<p>Alia stood up and froze. She was perfectly reading her mind as if she were a human or a were. Not random thoughts and unrelated feelings. The reading was perfectly clean.</p>
<p>“Fuck!” she said aloud.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0030"><h2>30. Chapter 30</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>“What?” Alia’s tone was calm, as if asking a child the reason of a reprehensible behaviour without giving it too much importance lest the child would consider lying.</p>
<p>“I killed her immediately,” Eric answered.</p>
<p>The fae realised equally fast that she was not touched by the untimely death of her assailant but rather by the impossibility to question her now. She was perplexed at her own lack of reaction and was silent for a while.</p>
<p>“Alia, I was desperate, couldn’t turn you and was not sure my blood was enough to heal you… your heart was fading, I…” his voice trailed off and he watched her.</p>
<p>Her hand moved of its own volition and caressed his cheek, then retracted quickly embarrassing Alia. “You couldn’t turn me?”</p>
<p>“You were unconscious and you had never authorised me to… do so in case of…” he searched her eyes monitoring her reaction in his blood inside her. “I didn’t want to upset you… I don’t want you to hate me…”</p>
<p>“I won’t ever be able to hate you,” she blurted out without thinking, then watched sideways as if something had happened at her side.</p>
<p>“Is that a permission to…?” Eric asked feeling her panic.</p>
<p>“I’m not planning to die any time soon,” she quipped to quench her mounting anxiety.</p>
<p>“That’s comforting,” he played along. “Will you tell me one day?”</p>
<p>“I don’t know… I have to think about it, really think.” Alia stumbled in her words, her thoughts spinning aimlessly. She finally asked, “Why would you want to do so, Eric?”</p>
<p>Eric waved his hand. “Never mind.”</p>
<p>She had been summoned to the royal palace to discuss in more detail what she had heard in Cat Island and before: it was Pamela’s calling and the vampiress was expected to arrive any time now.</p>
<p>It was twelve days since they had come back from the mini summit and yet they had to really review all events. It was also two days since she had perfectly read a vampire. More than one, indeed.</p>
<p>Latsis had sent an official flycar to pick her up, and Alia had read the vampire who was escorting her to the palace. Once arrived at the royal residence she had kept her mind unfolded and had gone through her <em>combing</em> routine. She had opened thirty one channels choosing only vampire minds: twenty one had been perfectly readable. Then she had stopped and had dried her sweaty palms on her light cape. Her feelings were a confused whirlwind of sensations she could not isolate. But she was thrilled.</p>
<p>Karin was still a void and Alia was strangely glad for it. Eric too was unreadable but the fae was less appreciative of it. Or maybe not, she really could not single out any of her feelings.</p>
<p>Alia and Eric were in his personal study waiting for Pamela and the silence had stretched for more than a few minutes already. Eric busied himself browsing through some files on his desk.</p>
<p>“Is there a problem with Pam?” she asked eventually. She was sitting in front of him.</p>
<p>“Sorry, I forgot to tell you. She was flying here but had to go back to Arkansas due to a new attack on the border. Kainz is on a business trip and she prefers to be in Arkansas now.” Eric was glad to change subject and relaxed. “She will join us in teleconference when ready. Watch what to say. Although we use all kind of programmes and countermeasure to avoid tapping, I don’t trust it.”</p>
<p>“This prejudice betrays your age, Eric,” the fae quipped.</p>
<p>“Actually it was a suggestion of our geeks,” he countered.</p>
<p>“Mmm,” Alia pretended to adjust her robe, “then it’s an excuse to see your child more often.”</p>
<p>“Possibly,” he nodded.</p>
<p>“Do you miss her?”</p>
<p>Eric watched Alia with a soft gaze. “Yes, sometimes.”</p>
<p>“She would come back in a second if you asked her.”</p>
<p>He grinned. “I know. But she likes her independence and I’m proud of her achievements. If she ever… decides to be at my side again, I will welcome her happily.”</p>
<p>“She didn’t choose to part from you in the first place, though,” Alia said.</p>
<p>“True. But she flourished in her new role of sheriff, and now as regent.”</p>
<p>Alia nodded and a tear run on her cheek.</p>
<p>“Alia, what…” he stood up and got closer to her.</p>
<p>“It’s nothing. This stupid weeping habit of mine. It seems I self hydrate my face all the time for no reason. It’s just it.”</p>
<p>“I like their taste,” he had just wiped her cheek and sucked his wet finger.</p>
<p>Alia stilled and watched him. “Eric, please.”</p>
<p>“Right. It’s our past, not now.” He knew he was teasing her, but could not help it.</p>
<p>Suddenly a rich, soft male voice filled the study singing an old melody.</p>
<p>
  <em>Love me, love me, love me, love me / Say you do / Let me fly away / With you / For my love is like / The wind / And wild is the wind / Wild is the wind /Give me more / Than one caress / Satisfy this Hungriness / Let the wind / Blow through your heart / For wild is the wind</em>
</p>
<p>Eric’s face hardened and he went back to his chair.</p>
<p>“Pam, you’re nurturing a death wish,” he murmured fumbling with the keyboard. He pressed the key to open the communication, and then Pamela’s smiling face appeared on the wall-mounted screen.</p>
<p>“Eric, Sookie, I would have really liked to be there with you,” Pamela started cheerful, “but more pressing matters kept me in wonderful Arkansas. I think you understand.”</p>
<p>“Do it once again and you’ll sorely regret it, child,” Eric’s voice carried a cold tone that unmistakably hinted at a very angry vampire.</p>
<p>“Oh, Eric, once you were playful and really funnier than now,” Pamela rebuked him waving a hand, “maybe you didn’t like the tune, I might change it if—”</p>
<p>“What was it?” interrupted Alia.</p>
<p>“Bowie singing an old tune as a tribute to Nina Simone,” chimed the vampiress, “so apt these times—”</p>
<p>“Pamela,” Eric’s threatening voice raised a few decibels.</p>
<p>“It’s… beautiful,” Alia whispered.</p>
<p>Eric stalled. Pamela stared at them in silence.</p>
<p>“Can we switch to business, now? Are countermeasure in place?” Alia said after some more awkward seconds.</p>
<p>“Yes, we’re as reasonably safe as we can be,” said Eric. He relaxed his shoulders leaning on the chair and invited the fae to take a seat at his side, facing the screen from where Pamela was still gazing at them.</p>
<p>“Recapping what we know,” started the vampiress, “we have two, possibly more, situations: Colorado’s counsellor plotted with Nevada’s second behind his king, unknown the matter, but Xu killed him. So, maybe -just maybe- this situation resolved itself.”</p>
<p>“Not yet,” said Eric, “we don’t know what was the trade and we can prudently assume that Nevada’s second was acting according to his king’s wish and will try again. We better get to know what it was about.”</p>
<p>“Next, Colorado is keeping tabs on Nevada and helps him financially,” continued Pamela. “Given that Colorado is always losing money and milking Wyoming, I wander how he can maintain this level of… investment. Is there another backer?”</p>
<p>“Sure,” stated Eric, “me.”</p>
<p>Pamela watched him questioningly, and Alia said, “A rope to hang himself.”</p>
<p>Eric smiled looking at the fae.</p>
<p>“How?” Pamela appeared slightly annoyed.</p>
<p>“Through Adrianne, obviously. It’s better he thinks to have just one to owe.”</p>
<p>“Then, we have the borders’ skirmishes,” Pamela resumed, “Russell complains about the same kind of turmoil, low level, and confirms that Missouri too has had some brawls in his turf. The same pattern: weres are caught fighting and spreading chaos in small frontier towns: humans die, vampires die, weres die.”</p>
<p>“Alabama and Georgia have the same situation,” added Eric pensive.</p>
<p>“If some weres get caught I can see if there’s some useful information to… extract,” Alia proposed.</p>
<p>“We already have two, maybe more. I let you know as my guards report this night’s events.” Pamela nodded, and added, “You can come here tomorrow, I’ll get—”</p>
<p>“Send them here,” said Eric, “Alia is not leaving Louisiana till her safety is at risk, right Alia?”</p>
<p>The fae sighed but nodded. “Yes, I think so. Pam, you better send weres and vampires involved. I could have a better reading if… vampires too are present. Just to act as a further stimulus for weres…” Alia knew it was an unusual request on her part.</p>
<p>“Explain,” said Eric.</p>
<p>She bent to him, reached out to his shoulder and locked eyes with him. “Eric, I cannot explain in detail how it works my gift, it would be boring. Just trust me,” she smiled coquettishly. “Did I ever let you down?”</p>
<p>Pamela bursted into a fat laugh. “I can’t believe my eyes! Eric, this fae is charming you.”</p>
<p>“I’m not! I’m just saying the truth,” Alia said. And smiled in her old, silly way.</p>
<p>Eric smiled also, got closer to her and said, “Charm me some more, fae.”</p>
<p>“Eric, I wouldn’t ever do that.”</p>
<p>“I’m not complaining.”</p>
<p>“Mmm,” hummed Pamela from the screen, “we have to get used to this new Sookie: she does it all the time, this cheeky fae.”</p>
<p>“Is it true, Alia?”</p>
<p>“No,” the fae countered feebly, shaking her head. “You know Pam, she likes to joke…”</p>
<p>“There’s also the matter of Colorado’s underling,” Pamela said playfully. “The one who tried to sell a fake memory about you being the one responsible for the breeching of confidentiality of a contract. You know, the contract that caused Colorado a huge, huge loss of money.”</p>
<p>Eric did not budge and actually got even closer to Alia. “Fae…?”</p>
<p>“Mmm…”</p>
<p>“Fae,” he insisted. He breathed in deeply, closing in eyes. Then, exhaled on her neck.</p>
<p>“Yes…”</p>
<p>“Your smell is all over you,” Eric said sniffing the strand of hair at the side of her face.</p>
<p>Alia cocked her head slightly toward Eric’s neck. “Mmm…”</p>
<p>Eric’s left hand went to the keyboard and hit a few times some keys until Pamela started to yell. “No, no, we have not finished yet, don’t swit—”</p>
<p>The sweet and lightly spicy scent of fae wrapped Eric as a multitude of hands on his bare skin, caressing, pocking, squeezing his most sensible areas. Then he smelled her arousal, a gentle heady warm perfume that assaulted his nose and defeated any residual resistance.</p>
<p>“Alia…” he whispered licking neck, earlobe, cheek. “If you don’t stop, I won’t…”</p>
<p>“Mmm,” Alia nuzzled, suck, bit his neck, then opened his lips with her tongue. Her thinking was simple and linear, in its way even coherent and focused, therefore she could not find anything to object. Eat. Eat him.</p>
<p>Eric lifted her long skirt and caressed her back, her skin smooth and soft. “Is that what you want?”</p>
<p>Alia’s hands worked calmly and accurately: unbuttoned his jacket, lifted the shirt, unfastened his belt. They too were focused and determined, nothing to disapprove in their conduct, therefore she did not interfere. Her mouth tasted and bit what was along its path.</p>
<p>Eric ripped her panties and dived his face on her sex, inhaling deeply, licking, sucking. His hands massaged, gripped, tightened, pinched. </p>
<p>Everything had the consistence of a dream where dreamers had an aim, however incongruous, and pursued it without second thoughts or hesitation in front of any obstacle or incoherence. Everything was right and there was no future judging their behaviours.</p>
<p>Her small moans filled his hears, as her quickened heart rate, while his mouth delivered pleasure and sucked her tangy fluids. Her release was deep and long, accompanied by a light shivering. Eric held her thighs open and continued to lick till her movements subsided and her breath relaxed. Then he collapsed on the floor taking her with him.</p>
<p>Soon after her hands slid under his trousers and boxers, removing them, and took hold of his erection. The vampire opened his eyes and watched her licking, biting, sucking, giving in to pleasure and satisfaction.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Slightly before dawn Eric had flown home from his official residence in downtown, where he rarely stayed for the day. He felt displaced. As if he had been gently pushed to leave his usual place without a new address to establish his residence. He did not know where he was, therefore. He had a shower, then gulped two bags of fresh blood. Finally he sat in the sitting room annexed to his bedroom and tried to reorganise his feelings.</p>
<p>After the interruption of the web conference with Pamela, Alia and he hadsex for the rest of the night. Then, everything became blurred as though a wrong filter had been inserted in front of his eyes.</p>
<p>She had been sensual and passionate, devouring his body as if savouring every part of it for the first time, and she had let him possess her without limits. It had been absolute and sating.</p>
<p>Then she had spoken.</p>
<p>
  <em>“It’s been perfect, Eric, as always with you. But I’m still hurting from your… betrayal. I don’t trust you and I have to protect myself.”</em>
</p>
<p>Her voice had been sweet and warm, but her words had been stones thrown to his face. She had not given him time to reply.</p>
<p><em>“Sex is wonderful but it’s not a… solution. Let’s say it’s been a one shot for old time’s sake, nothing more to read in it.”</em> </p>
<p>Again a sweet tone, maybe a little sad, but the meaning had been cold and definitive.</p>
<p>
  <em>“And you’re married. I’m not interested in being the other.”</em>
</p>
<p>At this point she had dressed and left without giving him time to explain his relationship with the queen of Alabama. Actually, without giving him time to understand that everything was going wrong again.</p>
<p>He still felt her hands on him. She had toyed with him playfully, making him beg for more, and delivering more. She had drunk avidly from him, leaving him pleasantly spent. And she had yielded completely in his arms, her abandon to pleasure intense and eloquent. Real.</p>
<p>He had dared to hope. For a few hours he had allowed himself to think that he could have another chance with her. It was not a sure thing but something to explore. She seemed still holding something for him, and he was willing to see if that thing was strong and fertile.</p>
<p>Then she had said that it was a sort of one night stand in memory of old times. A fucking, basically. A perfect one, though.</p>
<p>What he could possibly make of it?</p>
<p>Mostly, that the choice was hers.</p>
<p>And, indeed, that was exactly what he wanted to see in her, a choice. Not a yielding to his desire’s persistence, or a reenactment of their marriage. But an informed deliberate decision on her part. She knew whom he was, and he would not have changed anything for her.</p>
<p>A little pang of ineluctability, like that experienced in a fighting when an unavoidable blow is about to hit. She would not choose, he thought. He felt it as a confirmation.</p>
<p>The sun was high in the sky when he went to sleep, and he felt its burning rays on his skin even if the house was in shadows.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>A royal carfly had accompanied her home slightly before dawn. Alia had fled from Eric’s presence fearing any word he could have uttered after their lovemaking.</p>
<p>It had been shattering. In every sense of the word, positive and negative. And totally unexpected.</p>
<p>And Pamela’s intervention had been deliberate or casual? The vampiress had always been playful and irreverent, but why inserting a sweet tune for her calling chime if not to upset Eric? Or Alia? And why her intention should have been to bother him or her? At the end, though, it was quite irrelevant. In fact, Alia recognised, she had been excited by his closeness, she had wanted to stay with Eric, she had lost control of her scent. He had just answered to her pheromones.</p>
<p>Now, she could beat herself and deprecate her dangerous coveting or move on and try to do better next time. Alia did not delude herself, though: she had wanted him badly, with a determination she had not ever suspect to have. She wanted to slide under his skin and inside his head, she craved to take residence in his core and rest there for the time being.</p>
<p>And she was terrified by her own yearning. As if it had an independent and wild life of its own outside her reach.</p>
<p>But the state of calm frenzy she was experiencing now was not a good sleeping companion. She stepped down in the garden and closed her eyes turning to the sun. Its gentle morning warmth was a caress and a sobering push. She slid off her shoes and her long robe, and lied down on the grass.</p>
<p>The mild glow that passed through her closed eyes drew phosphenes under her lids. She took control of her breathing and began her mind exercises. She recognised all the usual minds in the neighbourhood, beyond the werecougar who watched her from a short distance, and the now familiar mindprint of the vampiress who had been assigned to her protection and now slept in a nearby house. </p>
<p>There was really nothing she could do presently. And she was also pleasantly tired. She drifted slowly in a deep energising sleep. Dreamless. Satisfied.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0031"><h2>31. Chapter 31</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p>“Explain,” asked Eric dryly.</p>
<p>“I already told you all,” Pamela huffed. “Someone wanted that Sookie believed that you had been the one to bribe his underling to disclose some information on the contract.”</p>
<p>“Hu Ke Xu’s underling,” said Eric.</p>
<p>“Yes, the one he had already killed believing him responsible of the leakage.”</p>
<p>“Someone,” repeated Eric.</p>
<p>“Probably another vampire in his entourage, maybe the one he killed up in the station,” Pamela offered.</p>
<p>“And you’ve been told all this by…?” Eric put some blanks to be filled and a question mark in his tone.</p>
<p>“A precious source that I have to protect,” Pamela said.</p>
<p>“Pam, I don’t want to force you. Don’t fuck about.”</p>
<p>“If you want me to have other information by the same source, leave it this way,” Pamela countered. “Do you think that I would withhold something potentially dangerous from you?”</p>
<p>Eric locked eyes with her. Then understanding struck. “Was it… Soo— Alia herself?” asked he.</p>
<p>“If she knows I blurted it out she won’t—”</p>
<p>“Why?” Eric asked cautiously. “Why did she tell—”</p>
<p>“Fuck, Eric. It’s surprising how dense you can be when Sookie is involved. She was worried!”</p>
<p>Eric lifted a brow.</p>
<p>“Yes, worried. Colorado’s advisor wanted to frame you and she was worried for the likely consequences. For you, for your safety.” Pamela exhaled loudly and crossed her arms on her chest. “And it was also her to mention the fact that Colorado is financing Nevada and keeping tabs on him. A couple of months ago.”</p>
<p>Eric watched her. “I don’t understand her behaviour…”</p>
<p>“What is there is not obscure nor difficult to get, Eric,” Pamela replied. “Yesterday night you cut me out but it was quite easy to understand what was happening.”</p>
<p>“Don’t think too much of it, and stay focused on our work,” he rebuked her. “What about this weres’ business, what’s happening at the Tennessee’s border?”</p>
<p>Pamela’s annoyance expressed itself in a series of little huffs, then she touched her tablet’s screen and resumed her business’ tone. The last episode at the northern border was particularly annoying as the weres involved seemed to have been killed by vampires. They had bites, were drained but no vampire smell was around the place for a radius of almost a mile from the corpses. No pack reclaimed those corpses and, given that no public authority had found them, the regent’s guards got rid of them and made them available for an autopsy. Pamela had sent there a witch, to see if an ectoplasmic reconstruction could shed some light on the circumstance of the death. Unfortunately, the experiment failed, but the witch ensured that no smell spell was ever performed around there. Pamela was thinking about asking another witch, given that there was no survivor of this accident to be questioned by the telepath. If Eric agreed, however, she could sent two weres caught a week ago and seemingly involved in a similar accident. They had been already questioned but their tales were incoherent and patchy, a kind of glamour maybe.</p>
<p>Eric confirmed and passed to another topic. Then another one, and so on until the early hours. He felt detached. And did not want to lose more time considering his predicament. He had preferred to stay home that night, and do some work with Pamela instead of chairing the quarterly meeting with his sheriffs. It was a weakness and he knew it. He was laying on a Berber rug, its soft wool smooth under his naked feet. He had not bothered to dress and, after his evening training, had donned only a pair of judo trousers. At the moment, even that bothered him.</p>
<p>“Now, we can join Karin and our sheriffs for the last part of the meeting,” Eric said standing up and heading to the door.</p>
<p>Pamela did not budge. “I rushed here from Arkansas as soon as Max was back, and you do your best to avoid the all thing?”</p>
<p>Eric frowned and looked at her with a puzzled expression.</p>
<p>“You and Sookie!” exclaimed Pamela annoyed. “I left you in a very promising position… what happened next? or, better, did you reach a satisfying agreement?”</p>
<p>“It’s not your business, Pam,” Eric was tired of her curiosity. “And I don’t like that you withhold information of any kind from me. Not even that relating to her depression and overall situation when I left for Oklahoma—”</p>
<p>“It’s more than forty years ago, Eric,” interjected Pamela. “What does it matter, now? It’s over, very much so.”</p>
<p>“It’s not over, it seems. At any rate, you should have reported everything as soon as I came back.”</p>
<p>Pamela narrowed her eyes. “Should I remember you how were things back then? There was a takeover to organise, and then a kingdom to govern. Sookie was definitely out of the picture, no one knew where she was, do you remember this detail?”</p>
<p>“I want to know every thing that happens around me and—”</p>
<p>“Are you looking for a reason to fight? If so, you don’t need a real motive, just say it plai—”</p>
<p>“I’m not trying to pick up a fight, Pam. Just don’t stick your nose where you shouldn’t. And stop with your little stuntsand games.”</p>
<p>“Oh, Eric. Since when do you take life’s ups and downs so heavily? Everything is relative and pretty unimportant when compared to death and the scope of our life. It was your teaching.”</p>
<p>“And it’s still right. Maybe, I don’t feel so cheerful and light these days, and you easily piss me off with your childish behaviour,” Eric’s smile was confined to his lips. “Maybe, Pam, you can be useful and go through the written report of the event in Cat Island and enlighten me with a fresh look at them. We could have ignored or overlooked something. Speak to Alia. And report to me.”</p>
<p>Pamela turned, before leaving Eric’s study, and said, “Maybe, being less arrogant and overbearing will do you some good. With Sookie, I mean.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>When Pam arrived Alia was finishing her dinner with Diantha. It was an hour after sunset and the little daemon was eager to leave. When the vampiress had landed Alia had sent her mind’s tendrils to verify her readability. She was somehow expecting what she found and, at the same time, disappointed to have to confirm her indecipherability. It seemed a common characteristic of Eric and his progeny, and she wondered if Hunter would have inherited the same opacity when turned. However, although unreadable their mindprints had assumed a more precise definition, as if a coloured glass had been lifted and outlines were marked in a stronger way.</p>
<p>Pamela was annoyed, Alia could tell by her gait —stiff and too forceful— and her pouting expression. And she also wanted it to show, Alia mused, and thus decided not to ask anything to annoy her some more.</p>
<p>“Pam, it’s been so kind of you to come to my place,” Alia chimed opening the back door to let her in.</p>
<p>“I was ordered to come here, fae.”</p>
<p>“Have a nice evening,” Alia wished to Diantha, and they were alone.</p>
<p>“So, you want to review the Cat Island’s file,” Alia said moving to the living room and unfolding her tablet. “Would you like some blood?”</p>
<p>“I already had my breakfast, thank you.”</p>
<p>“And, was it so inedible to make you sulk?” Alia could not resist.</p>
<p>“No, that was Eric,” replied the vampiress.</p>
<p>Alia waved her hand several times over the screen, then stopped. “Let’s go through Cat Island’s report, then.”</p>
<p>They went over the events of the meeting, and the findings in Alia’s summary. The ballet dancer kept turning up in Alia’s recollection of the minds’ reading, finally assuming the shape of the main originator of fears and threats in humans and a few weres. Unfortunately, the life attempt had prevented the fae from deepening her examination of the were population present at the meeting. Then she proposed to replicate the event and let her continuing her investigation.</p>
<p>“It’s not that easy to put together a few kings, fae,” Pamela sighed. “Besides, if they talked more often, they would have more reasons to bicker.”</p>
<p>“Shouldn’t be the contrary?”</p>
<p>“I wouldn’t say: vampires are territorial, possessive and… jealous,” Pamela laughed. “And talking about it, how did it end your night… a few nights ago?”</p>
<p>“It ended at dawn, as all nights do,” said Alia.</p>
<p>“Oh, fae! Don’t be so stingy,” Pamela countered pouting exaggeratedly. “You know that mine is not a curiosity for its own sake. I’d call it professional interest: if I knew what makes happy or sad my boss, I would better take care of his welfare.”</p>
<p>“I’m the last person who knows that!” exclaimed Alia. “Not that I’d be interested, anyway.”</p>
<p>“Fae, just tell me what happened: I shall be able to… deduce his preferences.”</p>
<p>“Nothing, Pam,” said Alia, “nothing important… maybe a mistake…”</p>
<p>“Did you kiss? You were so close and your scent was surely enticing,” the vampiress crossed her legs. “Did you… fuck? Maybe I smell—”</p>
<p>“Pam!” Alia blushed and went to the kitchen with their glasses. “It’s not a game, and… I don’t feel… shit…”</p>
<p>“Uh, it’s boring the way you two answer to the same question,” the vampiress said dismissing her denial and following the fae to the kitchen.</p>
<p>Alia had stopped at the sink. She did not want to go again to that night and to what it had implied for her. And Pamela was surely pushing some sore buttons. Alia took hold of a cloth and began cleaning the faucet and the surrounding area where some water had pooled. Diantha was not a very helpful roommate and relied completely on the cleaning technology the house was equipped with, and on the housekeeper the cleaning service sent every other day. But for all the advancement in technology, limestone stains were better faced with a good anti-scale detergent and a vigorous scrub.</p>
<p>Alia watched the result of her exertion and sighed. It was good to tackle a problem and solve it with a simple, decisive action. She closed her eyes and stood there, fighting her mounting anxiety.</p>
<p>Pamela had stopped at the entrance of the kitchen and was bracing herself against the doorjambs. “Sookie, stop that immediately.”</p>
<p>The fae did not hear the vampiress or did not pay attention to her. Sometimes doing more than breathing required all the attention she could master.</p>
<p>“Fae!” Pamela screamed and it was not a pleasant sound. “Hold your fucking smell, now.”</p>
<p>Alia turned and watched the vampiress with an inquisitive look. “What do you—” She saw Pamela’s grimace and the tension in her arms and stilled.</p>
<p>“Stop that,” the vampiress spoke through gritted teeth. “Call Eric… tell him to command me… now, shit, now.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“I’m sorry… I didn’t want.” Alia felt ashamed.</p>
<p>“What happened, exactly?” repeated Eric, watching her bruise on the cheekbone and the rest of her body to find other consequences of the assault.</p>
<p>“I was in the kitchen, putting something in the sink and then… Pam at the door asked me to hold my smell… I—I haven’t…” the fae stuttered.</p>
<p>“Yes, that’s clear. Cannot blame Pam; she’s young and your smell, even your normal odour, is very intoxicating. She couldn’t do much more than what she did.” The vampire watched the kitchen and the disarray left behind by the recent struggle: two stools were overthrown, some glass was on the floor and the rugs were all over the place.</p>
<p>“Yes, yes, I know. It’s my fault,” Alia said and moved around the room to lift stools, picking the larger pieces of glass and looking for a broom.</p>
<p>“Careful with that glass, Alia. What were you doing or thinking when the smell spilled?” Eric still detected her scent around her, especially when she moved her loose hair. </p>
<p>“We were talking… small talk, really not important,” the fae blushed and turned her back to him.</p>
<p>“Alia,” he called with a warm voice. “I’m trying to understand what triggers the leakage. Usually you are odourless, not even a faint human smell. But it already happened, remember? Were you arguing?”</p>
<p>“No, no, why?”</p>
<p>“Once it happened when you were mad at me… and you released your war scent, I—”</p>
<p>“War scent? What are you speaking about?” Alia turned again to face him.</p>
<p>“We vampire call it war scent: it’s your strongest and more toxic smell. It drives us mad, triggers our bloodlust but makes us dizzy and clumsy. You fairies use it when fighting.”</p>
<p>“But I did not want to fight you, never thought about it either,” protested Alia.</p>
<p>“You were yelling at me and were… very distressed,” Eric stepped closer, eyeing a scratch on her arm, the blood already coagulated but still fragrant.</p>
<p>“I—I—I was nervous, then,” she muttered, “didn’t want to fight you, Ialready apologised.”</p>
<p>“Next, it happened again a few nights ago. Were you nervous, again?” He tried not to allude to what had taken place afterward.</p>
<p>“No, yes. I mean,” Alia fumbled with words and felt a warm wave arising from her core. “It was… just a bout of jitters, not…”</p>
<p>The vampire ran a hand through his loose hair. “That night it was another kind of scent… but I know you don’t like women. Was Pam teasing you?”</p>
<p>“No, Eric. It’s really nothing. I—I—” Alia did not want to recall what she was thinking back then, but obviously her mind went exactly there. Graphically.</p>
<p>“Then, what were you thinking? It’s important to get to know what makes you lose control of your scent.” Eric inhaled and smiled slightly. Her sweet essence was pervading the air and filling his nostrils. Exciting. Provocative.</p>
<p>Alia blushed more and more, aware of her reddening and being ashamed all the more for that. When he was so close and so friendly she could not remember all the reasons it was better not to mess with him; her body and mind, instead, found a lot more factual motives to get closer and playful.</p>
<p>“Why are you here, now, Eric?”</p>
<p>“You called me, remember?”</p>
<p>“Pam asked me so and, really, you helped me,” she said dismissively. </p>
<p>“Then, I’m stupid,” stated Eric pursing his lips.</p>
<p>“No, the stupid is me. Of that I’m certain.”</p>
<p>“What can two stupids do in a kitchen?” he asked.</p>
<p>“Probably, stupid things…” she answered shrugging.</p>
<p>He cocked his head and bent toward her. “I don’t want to do stupid things, though…”</p>
<p>“Then, you should leave now,” she said, “please…”</p>
<p>“If you really want me to go, I will,” Eric offered, “if I could choose, I’d stay. But it’s up to you, now. Say it.”</p>
<p>A pang of fear, and sorrow, struck her chest and she whispered, “It’s not that simple, Eric. Actions have consequences, and more often than not they’re not gentle…”</p>
<p>“It’s more than forty years than I’m dealing with the consequences of actions that others have imposed on me,” he stated, “and long ago I chose not to allow that any more. But to you. Now.”</p>
<p>Despite the fact that most reasonable people would consider confusion and worry certainly not a commendable state of mind to make a decision, those same people would recognise that everybody determined their course of action when it was required by the situation, and not only when their head was calm, clear and strong.</p>
<p>Alia, compounding her confused worry with a tinge of uncertainty, stepped forward and rubbed herself on him, sliding her hands over his body and pulling his head closer to hers. “If I ever regret this, I’ll make sure you’ll regret it too.”</p>
<p>“Deal.” It was his last word for a while.</p>
<p>They did it a few times, slowly and deliberately. Over the kitchen’s counter. On the stairs up to her bedroom. On the soft rug in the sitting room adjoined to the bedroom. The previous time it had been a wild banquet, this time it was a discovery journey.</p>
<p>After, they rested in the bathtub and washed each other in silence. Alia tried not to make eye contact with him, uncertain as to what she would find and not trusting herself with a sober and dispassionate gaze. Eric massaged, licked and sniffed her skin, basking in her postcoital scent.</p>
<p>“I should start to catalog fae scents,” the vampire whispered in her ear, “and their effects on me.”</p>
<p>“I never imagined there were different smells…”</p>
<p>“Humans, too, have different smells, but much less enticing. The only interesting smell to me is that of excitement, while some vampires find <em>interesting</em> the smell of fear and that of anger,” said Eric scraping his retracted fangs on her neck. “Fae smells, on the contrary, are all very compelling, beginning from your normal state scent.”</p>
<p>“How is it that you can stand it?”</p>
<p>“I don’t stand every fae smell,” he pointed out smiling, “just yours, and not in every… situation. Your war smell is destabilising and unbearable even to me. Your love smell, in the other hand, is <em>destabilising</em> and <em>unbearable</em> in a totally different way and—”</p>
<p>“Love smell?”</p>
<p>“When you’re excited, sexually excited I mean, your scent is spicier and intoxicating in a very compelling way,” Eric wiggled his eyebrows. “When you are in your normal state, I don’t know… yet. You’re always so careful to erase it completely.”</p>
<p>“Maybe, it would be unbearable or annoying as well,” Alia considered. “At any rate, among vampires I prefer not to… arise any misplaced interest.”</p>
<p>“That’s good. As for me, I think I could stand it, as I can stand your love smell.”</p>
<p>“Uh,” the fae nuzzled his nipples alternatively, “then, you didn’t jump on me because of my smell a few nights ago…”</p>
<p>“Mmm, I did,” he said, “detecting your excitement was what undid me. I like when you want me… and show it.”</p>
<p>“And you didn’t think about consequences,” she asked, “you did not think about your wife’s reaction, did you?”</p>
<p>“Mmm, it’s not what you think,” Eric whispered, “now carry on, later I’ll explain…”</p>
<p>“I remember all the fuss about the blood offence and the fact that you excused me because I was not one of your kind… Is it any different now?”</p>
<p>“Rehema and I don’t exchange blood any more and do not hold the other to keep his or her blood. Our marriage is merely a political statement. On the contrary, <em>our </em>marriage,” he waved a finger between them, “was the real thing… at least for me.”</p>
<p>Alia downed her eyes and suffocated a pang of pain. “It wasn’t enough to hold against vampire politics, though.”</p>
<p>Eric tried to hold her wrists but Alia disentangled and slid outside the bathtub, muttering something about the coldness of the water and leaving the bathroom with a towel around her body.</p>
<p>The vampire stood up and cursed. These moments he did not nurture the inner certainty that he was doing a wise thing. She was stubborn and yet too hurt to see their past for what it should have been, past and dead. She, in fact, kept it alive and hurting.</p>
<p>When he entered her bedroom she was almost dressed.</p>
<p>“Diantha has come back, and Thalia is coming.”</p>
<p>“Thalia?”</p>
<p>They descended to the living room and Thalia, small and straight in a dark suit, watched them suspiciously. The internal lights had switched on automatically as the vampiress had entered the house.</p>
<p>“Pam told me to report to you here,” she said bowing stiffly, a movement that resembled more a stumble than a greeting, “given that you were working with Sookie.” Then, she smiled to the fae and inhaled deeply. “Hard work, I see. The all house smells of it.”</p>
<p>“Thalia, careful,” Eric’s voice was cold and unforgiving.</p>
<p>“I’m not complaining, though,” Thalia continued, unfazed. “This smell is very… very pleasant, indeed…”</p>
<p>Alia blushed intensely and opened her mouth to reply, but Eric moved in front of her. “Thalia, leave the house immediately. In the garden, go.” Then he turned to the fae and whispered: “Hold you scent. I don’t want anyone else to smell it… er, it’s not safe.”</p>
<p>Alia nodded and concentrated, erasing her efflux completely. Then she followed Thalia’s mind and her intricate thoughts. At the moment, in fact, the vampiress’ mind was a hot mass of incoherent and bristly rumination, with spikes of alertness and frenzy. That was the effect of fae scent in a vampire mind! Alia was rapt by the mindprint the vampiress projected and trailed her evolution closely.</p>
<p>Eric had opened doors and windows to ventilate the rooms at the ground floor, and now was looking closely at Alia’s intense face. “You’re all right?”</p>
<p>“Besides the fact that every vampire can smell that we’ve just fucked, probably even my guard outside, well, yes,” she said sarcastically. “With all due respect to privacy.”</p>
<p>“Regretting already?”</p>
<p>“Not yet, but I would have appreciated some privacy,” Alia snapped.</p>
<p>“I go to see what she has to report,” he said leaving the room, annoyed. “And don’t worry, no one will speak of it.”</p>
<p>Alia shrugged and sat on the sofa, expanding her mind some more.</p>
<p>Slowly the vampiress calmed down, under Eric’s questioning, and her thoughts unfolded easily to the fae: Alia listened to her report savouring her new skill. Weres in north Arkansas, from a pack that ran in Colorado till a decade ago, have allegedly been attacked by some vampires and left dead and drained. Bites were easily recognisable on their necks, but no vampire smell was detected on or around them. Not even residual magic (why did they look for that? thought Alia) lingered in the place and no possible explanation was still agreed upon. The regent’s second had confirmed of similar accidents in Texas and New Mexico, and both monarchs had offered to host the telepath to question the survivors. Thalia left shortly after and Eric came back inside.</p>
<p>“I don’t care that anyone knows about our… romp, it’s just that I don’t want to create problems… to you,” whispered Alia turning to him.</p>
<p>Eric rounded the sofa and kneeled in front of her. “The only problem you could create to me is if you… considered that a romp.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Why didn’t you marry him back then? I remember you were considering it,” Eric asked Adrianne Bakkali, the queen of Wyoming.</p>
<p>Her green eyes rolled over and she smiled. “Yes, I considered it seriously. Xu can be pleasant and agreeable, yet he’s too easily influenced. It would have been a work to keep him on track and, as a husband, could have created more problems than those resolved by the marriage. At the end, I opted for giving him the financial resources he needed and bridle his business enthusiasm this way.”</p>
<p>“Maybe those bridles are not enough any more…” offered Eric, his mind still on Alia’s skin while he touched a few icons on the screen. Adrianne, her luscious dark hair at a side, occupied half screen and watched him calmly.</p>
<p>“Yes, you’re not the only one complaining. And now there’s that debacle with his contract on aerospace supplies. He lost a lot of money and, to keep the agreement viable, we had to open the coffers again.”</p>
<p>“That’s not a problem: the business is good and we’ll gain very well. I was thinking about the weres. Did you hear Russell recently?”</p>
<p>“Oh, yes.” Adrianne got closer to the camera and her face loomed large on the screen. “I checked. I’d say there’s nothing from Xu. But I’ll keep very tight tabs. Xu has… very questionable friends, you know.”</p>
<p>“Please, Adrianne. Do so. It’s becoming something more than a nuisance…”</p>
<p>“Dakotas, too, had some… odd and seemingly unconnected problems with weres,” the beautiful oval face of the queen lost her cheerfulness. “And fairies, too, are… restless.”</p>
<p>Eric frowned. “What about fairies?” He knew the queen had a lively relationship with fairies, channelling a good chunk of fae business on this side of the planet.</p>
<p>“Eric, you know as it is with fairies,” Adrianne said, “I think lady Alia’s choice to leave Faery gave start to a turmoil in high echelons…”</p>
<p>“How so?”</p>
<p>“Fairies are not exactly talkative about their politics, all I know is what I gathered here and there, just crumbs… gossip mostly,” she said vaguely.</p>
<p>“Adrianne, you know that Alia is in my kingdom. I wouldn’t like to be surprised by anything coming from that side…”</p>
<p>“Lady Alia… Alia is an enigma in herself, Eric,” the vampiress started. “Fifteen years ago gossip said that she was about to marry and—”</p>
<p>“To marry?” Eric kept a reasonably flat tone. “Who?”</p>
<p>“C’mon, Eric, who do you think? Her cousin, obviously.” The vampiress sighed slightly annoyed. “Didn’t you know?”</p>
<p>“This side of the States fairies don’t crowd our roads!” Eric snapped more annoyed.</p>
<p>“Uh,” Adrianne seemed to ponder it, then added, “You’ve got plenty of daemons and witches, but not many fairies, yes… At any rate, if Aengus was thought to marry Alia, it means that what they say about her is close to the truth…”</p>
<p>“And what they say, exactly, about her?” Eric’s blank face could have been whiter than usual, but the screen image was not entirely reliable.</p>
<p>“A lot of things, actually. Apparently that she is very powerful, that she has her great grandfather around her little finger and Aengus’ tongue on her pussy, that daemons are charmed by her and that…”</p>
<p>A part of Eric’s mind had stopped to listen and focused solely on <em>Aengus’ tongue on her pussy</em>. Objectively, it was not a commendable image, also because Eric found distasteful to put closer to her sex anything that was not his. Aengus, in addition, was not among his favourite fairies and interactions with him had always been reciprocally disagreeable. More like tense. Sporadically even belligerent. Now that he thought about it, he did not remember why it all started that way, but he was pretty sure it had been Aengus to begin this <em>unfriendship</em>.</p>
<p>“What about Aengus and Alia, exactly. What did they say?”</p>
<p>Adrianne paused and watched Eric. The latter stared at the monitor expressionless. The vampiress nodded and resumed her recounting. “Aengus is a young but powerful fairy. Someone says he’s the one behind the scene… who directs the show in Faery. Rumours, nothing confirmed. He has no formal title or role. Anyhow, these rumours are consistent over time and something has to be in there. His liaison with Alia dates back to an undetermined time. This Alia seems to have been a secret even among fairies and very well guarded: no one knows anything about her origins and her role. Put this and the fact that Aengus is in love with her and you have something to—”</p>
<p>“In love?”</p>
<p>“Eric,” Adrianne started, “you’re going round and round but all I have are scraps. My source told me he was in love with her and they had a long story. The only relationship Aengus ever had, it seems, and…”</p>
<p>Eric wondered if Alia’s reluctant behaviour was due to her engagement to her cousin. The vampiress continued her fragmented tale and he agreed with her that knowing something more could have been interesting for their business with the fairies. A part of him, though, began to review all his interactions with Alia putting them in a different perspective. It was not easy. Nor without pain.</p>
<p>“…therefore, when she left the balance tilted dangerously: scheming started again and what was thought a peaceful situation showed its cracks and, now, everything is fluid… Niall, Dillon, Aengus… even Dermot woke up.”</p>
<p>Eric’s eyes narrowed. “Who’s ruling in Faery, now?”</p>
<p>“Were it clear, I’d know where to turn!” she complained.</p>
<p>“Whom would you bet on?” Eric asked. </p>
<p>“Dillon and Aengus, alternatively. This week the most likely is Aengus,” Adrianne sighed.</p>
<p>“Do you mean that they share the throne?”</p>
<p>“There’s no throne, and it only means that I don’t understand much of fairy politics,” blurted out the vampiress with a barely restrained discontent.</p>
<p>“Adrianne, fairies are secretive and manipulative, as much as daemons,” Eric considered, “but at least daemons are more reliable.”</p>
<p>The vampiress nodded and sighed again. “Sorry, Eric. I didn’t want to dump my problems on you. But fairies are so… incredibly annoying.”</p>
<p>Eric swallowed then asked, “Do you think that Alia could be the target of one or more parties fighting for supremacy?”</p>
<p>Adrianne shook her head. “I don’t think so. The fight is all internal to the House of Brigant. I think that Alia could somehow tip the balance. Probably, when she goes back, things will settle again.” </p>
<p>Eric’s hands clenched. “Is she expected to go back to Faery?”</p>
<p>Adrianne considered it a while. “It’s not that she has a return ticket, but it seems -so the rumours go- that she came to Earth to stay with her old brother. So, when the brother dies…”</p>
<p>Eric nodded. Indeed, Pam had mentioned something similar a few months earlier. When her brother died, she would not have any more reasons to stay on Earth.</p>
<p>Eric closed his eyes. He felt cold and distant.</p>
<p>Time. An unknown variable that smashed mountains and dusted empires. Really no chance for a tiny desire.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0032"><h2>32. Chapter 32</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Curious…” Pamela’s voice lingered some more on the microphone, as an afterthought, and her face wavered on the screen. She stared at Eric with a half smile and considered his proposal for promoting a meeting of Amun Clan, and maybe extending it to part of Zeus Clan, to have the telepath read as much people as possible and have more data to plan upon. The same suggestion Alia had advanced. Eric had just told her to think of some plausible excuses to gather the higher number of monarchs and to organise the extraordinary summit.</p>
<p>Eric watched his child over the screen. “Why? It’s rather obvious for us, at least till everybody suspects or understands it. But Alia is playing it down very well…”</p>
<p>“Curious because Sookie suggested the same,” added Pamela. “What is she playing down?”</p>
<p>“Her skills… someone thinks she’s more powerful than she lets see.”</p>
<p>“Mmm,” the vampiress pondered it a few minutes. “Sookie told me that she reads better than before. Much better. She told by and large that she studied a lot back in Faery and that her skills are… sharper. Do you think that she can read…”</p>
<p>“…us?” concluded Eric. “No, definitely not us. But there’s people that believe that she can read more than humans and weres.”</p>
<p>“Just ask her,” proposed Pamela. “I don’t think she will lie to you.”</p>
<p>“She’s fae, now,” Eric smiled, “really fae. She won’t lie, just omit and/or deflect the matter.”</p>
<p>“Yes, maybe you’re right,” Pamela smiled too, “she changed a lot.”</p>
<p>Eric nodded and his gaze became distant. Pamela had rarely seen her maker so doubtful and hesitant, and it was always when the little telepath was involved. He did not know what to do and had said so many times, with a sadness and a resignation that were not his.</p>
<p>Eric had called from his home study, too early to be polite. Pamela had complained and threatened to refuse his calls before an hour after sunset. Her maker had barely acknowledged her. Now, he was speaking curtly and cursorily.</p>
<p>“You’ve never been like that, Eric,” she said after a long silence. “You faced your life head on, you fought for what you wanted.”</p>
<p>“Sometimes you want life to come to you in a simpler way, without fighting you all the way.”</p>
<p>“Life is a struggle and a bet, or a path, a play, whatever you want, but you have to be the active participant, not a puppet waiting for someone to pull the strings,” Pamela countered.</p>
<p>“There’s a time to fight, a time to gather knowledge, a time to wait,” he parried. “Waiting is the hardest part, child. But timing your action is a very delicate task, and sometimes you have to wait for another’s choice.”</p>
<p>Another pause. That night their consultation had been dotted by more silences than words, more hints than utterances. Pamela smiled, without changing her countenance, recalling Alia’s words of a couple of hours earlier: <em>I fear to lose myself again</em>. Fear. The vampiress’ chest tightened as she made her best effort not to remember how her own fear had become a solid in her stomach, a grave in a forgotten cemetery. Many years had passed but her grief had not disappeared, just morphed into a faint soundtrack in her life. <em>Don’t play with rules</em>, she had warned the fae, <em>they’re not meant to make you happy</em>.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em>Don’t play with rules: they’re not meant to make you happy</em>.</p>
<p>Pamela’s words.</p>
<p>Alia had rolled them back and forth the all time since her phone call with her friend. Eric surely was not following rules, if not his own. What about her? Alia knew he was married and, nonetheless, she had welcomed him. Even more, to be true: she had wanted and pursued him. She had done her best to hide this detail even to herself, but it was there. She still wanted him. Alia had allowed herself the physical side of it, as it was safer and easier to accept. She had not considered the consequences of her behaviour, at least the part where she could not cut away the feelings he summoned so strongly. She had thought those feelings were just ghosts of the real thing, already morphed into a lost chance that would not come up again. Yet, below pain and resentment it was there, she could feel it still alive, only a thick layer of fear keeping it hidden and ineffective. She was even scared to name it. Craving. It was tainted by a shade of betrayal and the dullness of bitterness, but it was there.</p>
<p>Now, she had to face it and consider what to do.</p>
<p>A lot of ideas, emotions, thoughts crammed into her head but she came up only with the feeling of his hands over her body, his mouth on her sex, his spicy words in her ears. It was hard to find a solution this way, but Alia was not sure to be willing to find a way out from his hands.</p>
<p>She was still lost in her sensations when Cataliades arrived. Alia was in the garden, under a lazy afternoon sun, pretending to study the last commitment in her monthly schedule. The fae had purposely not accepted to reduce her engagements due to the accidents she had been involved, as her godfather had proposed, to demonstrate, to whoever thought to target her, that she was continuing her life as usual. Almost as usual. Indeed, since her detail had a daily and a nightly shift nothing had happened. Actually, though, it had not passed much time.</p>
<p>“The king is very worried for you,” the daemon lawyer started, after having sat down, poured some tea in the spare cup on the side table and munched some biscuits.</p>
<p>“Mmm,” Alia lifted her eyes from the tablet. “He equipped me with guards, night and day. I’d like to pay for this service but he wouldn’t allow. I guess I have to hire my own guards, then. Do you know any company that—”</p>
<p>“I spoke to Dillon, and he has already provided you with… company,” said Cataliades. “As for you hiring some muscles to protect you, my advice is to let your family and your host to give you their protection. It would be an… offence, both for your family and Northman, to refuse their security measures.”</p>
<p>Alia opened her mouth to say something, and closed it after some thinking. Then, she added, “How is it that I didn’t spot any fairy around me?”</p>
<p>Cataliades smiled and put on an expression of surprise, too exaggerated not to be faked. “I wouldn’t know. Maybe, they’re masters of disguise…”</p>
<p>“Desmond, I don’t like the—”</p>
<p>“Dearest, it’s better not to push the matter. Your family is worried, and there are things that is better not to speak about. Not now, at least.”</p>
<p>Alia watched her godfather intently, but without trying any reading. Which, at any rate, he could have prevented easily. Then, she said, “Desmond, since when do you think that ignorance is preferable to knowledge?” The fae’s tonewas tinged by a slight shade of mockery. </p>
<p>“Alia, my child,” he said after a while. “You’re right. In this case, though, to know more would not give you any advantage and surely will upset you more, maybe driving you to something rash…”</p>
<p>“Desmond, don’t treat me as a child,” Alia complained. </p>
<p>The daemon considered what to say carefully. “No one yet knows where these threats come from. Really. Investigations are… difficult and elusive. That’s why no one wants to point a finger anywhere: it’s still too uncertain.”</p>
<p>Alia nodded. “Just one… question, though.”</p>
<p>Cataliades moved a hand as to invite her to ask.</p>
<p>“Is the queen of Alabama among the suspects?”</p>
<p>“Why would you think so?” Cataliades frowned, then relaxed. “No, my dearest. Mrs Donnelly would never attempt to your life, if nothing else because she would prefer to lose a leg before hurting Mr Northman in any way.”</p>
<p>Alia gaped at him, confused. “I don’t understand.”</p>
<p>“I think that you could speak about that with… the king himself. Actually, he is the best way to… understand this situation.”</p>
<p>“Are you implying… something?”</p>
<p>“Definitely,” Cataliades smiled, “and Mr Northman is the most qualified to answer your question. Besides, you will have a few days together at the upcoming summit and it—”</p>
<p>“Is Eric coming too?” Alia asked with a mix of anxiety and annoyance. “The summit is marked as a Zeus meeting.”</p>
<p>“Great Louisiana has been invited as a very important bordering neighbour, and one of the most relevant investor in several of the participating kingdoms. You will be… at his service, in this case.”</p>
<p>“And no one cared to inform me?”</p>
<p>“Louisiana’s participation has been decided yesterday night,” communicated the daemon. “And, from what I heard, your services have been… reserved to this kingdom from now on, under those security’s measure we’ve talked of before.”</p>
<p>Alia stood up, furious. “That’s an abuse of power, Desmond. I can’t believe you allowed that! I won’t—”</p>
<p>“Your great uncle asked it, as a condition not to call you back to Faery,” said Cataliades placidly.</p>
<p>“Dillon?” Alia was more perplexed. “And Niall agreed…?”</p>
<p>“Yes,” the daemon nodded once.</p>
<p>“Why am I the last one to know?” she hissed as her anger spread over her body as a light tremor.</p>
<p>“I’ve been charged by the king to inform you of that, and to tell you that if you don’t… agree, he will grant you a residence in any other kingdom you might request.”</p>
<p>Alia narrowed her eyes and said, “Where is the trick?”</p>
<p>“Northman accepted Dillon’s requests as long as you choose to stay in his kingdom,” informed Cataliades. “He couldn’t do more than that, dearest.”</p>
<p>“Uh,” muttered the fae, “a diplomatic… deflection.”</p>
<p>“There are treaties between Faery and vampires, and the peace will hold till they are respected. Mostly.”</p>
<p>Alia nodded with bad grace. Vampire (or fairy) politics was a nasty hedgehog that had repeatedly crossed her path, whether she liked it or not. It was time to turn on its back this spiny critter and study its belly before long.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Vampires loved style, riches and excesses as expected by almost any known being; their appreciation, though, was deeper and more diverse than average humans: most of them had had decades to perfect their tastes and experiment variety.</p>
<p>It should also be considered that having lost the pleasure of eating, they had sublimed that desire in many creative, and some times not really ingenious,ways. The technological progress had further expanded their horizons. And the vileness of some.</p>
<p>Alia was at once intimidated and anxious to discover what she could learnfrom a gathering of vampires’ minds. The fae felt the excitement as a physical burst of energy and the presence of Eric at her side increased her thrill.</p>
<p>They entered the ballroom of the most recent and impressive hotel built in Oklahoma City at the beginning of that decade and Alia stared in rapture at the sight of the northern wall. It was an extended, partially curved, surface of glass beyond which the city lights were screened by an aquarium jutting out of the building, at different angles. The tank contained fish of any measure and colour, and vampires sliding over them in their evening dresses, or at different degrees of nakedness. Some copulated, some danced, some stared back at the room as untamed predators watching their prey.</p>
<p>“Careful, Alia,” Eric whispered at her ear, “stay focused. And be prepared for… anything.”</p>
<p>The fae nodded and let him lead her through tables, sofas and clusters of guests, both human and vampire, till their private sitting area, not far from one of the bands that played an old melodic tune. Pamela and Latsis had already sat down scanning the crowd with a boring look, the vampiress, and an annoyed scowl, the secretary.</p>
<p>The opening day of the summit was scheduled for the following night, while this night was dedicated to welcoming and renewal of acquaintance among guests and their parties. Plus a good share of local politicians, entrepreneurs, artists to liven up the ball.</p>
<p>“You look just gorgeous,” the vampiress welcomed the fae with a mischievous smile and patted the seat at her right. Eric rounded the sofa and sat at Alia’s other side.</p>
<p>“You’re only satisfied because I wear the dress you chose for me,” Alia smirked and waved her arms to show the ethereal texture of the fabric. It was a sleeveless tunic apparently shapeless that moved around her figure, at the rhythm of the music’s higher vibrations, alternatively exposing and concealing her body. An exquisite fae artefact Rhiannon had given her a couple of years before: it reminded her of her friend for the changing colours, from deep blue to shades of green, which ran through the fabric according to the lights.</p>
<p>“I’m satisfied too,” whispered Eric.</p>
<p>Alia turned with a questioning look and a playful smile. From their place they had a good sight of the entire hall, maintaining a partially concealed position. Dim lights and coloured vapours hanging in mid-air helped to create an uncanny air ofanticipation. </p>
<p>“Sea sights are my favourite,” the vampire whispered in her ear. “I can’t wait to plunge into that sea, hopefully.”</p>
<p>“Don’t divert my attention,” quipped Alia, “I’ve got a work to do.” That said the fae leant on the backrest and closed her eyes, pretending to follow the music. Her mind unfolded neatly and freed its receptors expanding slowly its range of perception. The background noise gently disappeared and Alia began to comb the mental waves that filled the ballroom. Vampire minds were the most stronger and louder, coming to the forefront of her conscious attention as red flares of different intensity. Alia caressed those minds lightly, judging their response (usually swift and precise), and letting them permeate hers on the surface, in the limited enclosure she had just cleared for them. She had disguised that area as a human mind, precisely that of a dumb blond (as Rhiannon had helped her to shape), hiding the hard spikes and rugged planes that would have exposed her as a fae, if were there any natural receiver to capture her mental tendrils. The general mood was revved up and sexually charged, as it was expected when a crowd of scantly clad bodies of both genres (maybe more than two, observed Alia smiling) stirred and rubbed over one another at different degrees of involvement. She had opened thirty nine channels and had already changed subjects for the third time, just to take stock of the situation. </p>
<p>“What an enticing sight,” a pleasant voice reached her from afar, while his mind exuded appreciation and a not moderate sexual interest. “My favourite telepath.”</p>
<p>“Colorado,” the hard tone in Eric’s voice discouraged any further appreciation.</p>
<p>Alia opened her eyes and noticed her own hand over Eric’s thigh, squeezing it as if to keep her ground and absorb his energy. She had done so without a conscious decision and, now, she regretted it and swiftly moved it away.</p>
<p>“Lady Alia,” Xu saluted her with a brief bow, “would you dance with—” The king stopped abruptly, a funny questioning look spreading on his face. Then, he inhaled deeply and held his breath for some time.</p>
<p>“It seems someone… claimed you pretty deeply,” he added with a disturbing sugary tone.</p>
<p>Alia blushed unwillingly and turned to Eric, then to Pamela, with an alarmed glance. Then, the king of Colorado’s thought cleared in front of her: he had smelled Eric’s blood in her, and his sperm too. Hu Ke Xu, a wicked smile on his lips, nodded and left.</p>
<p>Regained her shade of golden pink on her cheeks, Alia raised an eyebrow, annoyed but confused. “What the hell…?”</p>
<p>It was Pamela who answered, with an amused tone. “Digestion takes from twenty four to seventy two hours to complete its cycle. It seems you have ingested a good amount of his semen, telepath. And it can take up residence in your vagina for a while after, up in the posterior fornix, through the cervix, in the uterus… many places, you see. I’d say less than twenty four hours since your last… encounter.”</p>
<p>“How is it possible? I— I—”</p>
<p>“Don’t you remember, fae?” Pamela smiled. “I’m sure my maker will show you again how, over and over.”</p>
<p>“Pam. I mean… I’m masking my scent. Completely!”</p>
<p>“Exactly, fae. <em>Your</em> scent, not his,” said the vampiress matter-of-factly. “His ejaculate has an odour, as his blood, and given that is not your body which controls his molecules’ smell, his <em>presence</em> is quite… identifiable.” Pamela stopped, savouring her own words. Then she added, “Without considering <em>your </em>smell in <em>his</em> body.”</p>
<p>“Shit!” exclaimed the fae, flouncing in her seat.</p>
<p>“If it helps you, it’s quite faint and it’s detectable exactly because you have erased so thoroughly your own scent,” added Eric flatly. “If you allowed some of your… fragrance, just a little whiff, it could cover that acceptably. Only very fine nose would detect it.”</p>
<p>“And, obviously, all vampires have fine noses!” snapped Alia.</p>
<p>“No, not all of us, Sookie,” offered the vampiress smiling.</p>
<p>Alia relaxed and, after a while, asked, “Is that… enough?”</p>
<p>“Oh, fae,” uttered Pamela inhaling. “It’s… delicious. It’s definitely better than your already delectable human smell.” Then she added, “I’m a fine nose and I still smell Eric in you, but that’s because I know what to look for. Most vampires will stop at your scent and bask in it.”</p>
<p>“And given that you’re a known fae, no one will… think to look for anything else,” concluded Eric with a satisfied expression. “Just… downplay some more your sweetness: it’s too enticing to my taste.”</p>
<p>“Mmm,” Alia nodded, “this way?”</p>
<p>“Yes,” interjected the vampiress, “now, go to dance with Niko and scan the room.”</p>
<p>“Already done,” Alia leant again over the backrest, “I need all my concentration, not a good thing to think where to put my feet.”</p>
<p>Reluctantly, the fae immersed herself in the minds floating already around them. Mostly vampires. Sex, envy, anger, lust, curiosity, hatred. She focused in the source of the latter, but it was directed toward a group of vampires behind them: Great Nebraska’s retinue.</p>
<p>It was a mini summit with only five kingdoms (beyond that it included Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, and obviously Oklahoma), and Great Louisiana was a guest in the capacity of an unavoidable economic player in two bordering states, and of personal friend to both Oklahoma and Texas.</p>
<p>The scope of the summit was varied and multi layered. The conference title was <em>Beyond Earth: Stars Shine Over Us</em> and it was meant to foster more treaties over space travels and add other space hubs. New Mexico had offered areas and profitable conditions but needed money, which Great Louisiana -and Alabama- were willing to put into it. The meeting had also the goal to start a flexible regulation on production of synthetic foods and spacial equipment, and on research of universities and other private industries in all scientific areas interested by extraterrestrial opportunities. A less advertised subject of interest was to encourage intelligence exchanges amongst some agencies and governments (both heavily infiltrated by vampires) and, consequently, choosing who appointing to the Bureau of Extraterrestrial Affairs. In fact, several branches of BEA were in need of a turnover or, at least, a limited change in some echelons, like Earth Two and Three, Moon Base and, especially, the Mars Station project.</p>
<p>That night Alia discovered that Great Nebraska blew up a deal between Alabama and Texas (equipment for space station: solar sails, movable mechanic arms fuelled by solar light, gravity enhancers) fraudulently exploiting some insider intelligence (Colorado’s entourage was aware of it, though the fae could not discover what level of collaboration they had granted); that Colorado (at least, two of his most trusted advisors) schemed against New Mexico and Texas attempting to scuttle their agreements over the joined exploitation of Mexico’s newly discovered rare earth minerals; that New Mexico’s king, Don Juan, was incapacitated and his second-in-command was actually ruling in his place, but on his behalf, since long time.</p>
<p>The fae uncovered many other attempts and successfully completed conspiracies, mainly to decency and good taste, without ever plunging into a mind, but only picking up thoughts floating around her. At least three vampires, for instance, had a stomach bag inserted in their belly to hold all the food they ingested (discarding it afterward); a good number of humans and vampires had butt plugs, vibrators, squeeze-balls, electric nipple clips and alike paraphernalia, of which Alia did not understand the benefits; two vampires had well disguised prosthesis (a leg, and a heart); a woman had undergone a complete transfusion of vampire blood but, strangely, had not turned into one.</p>
<p>When Alia arrived to her room, in the upper floors of the same building, she was tired and more excited than ever. Her mind was becoming sharper andmore flexible, and she felt a subtle pleasure using it.</p>
<p>That day her sleep was deep and dreamless.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The following night, after the formal welcoming to the summit, guests spread out among the several conference rooms dedicated to business discussions, seminars and preliminary meetings to deliberate over BEA’s new appointees.</p>
<p>Alia decided to sail from a room to another, starting from the seminar <em>Pharma Food: New Challenges, New Phoods</em>. In fact, she had realised that the best way to explore vampire minds without risking to be detected was simply to open her receptors to their wave length. And nothing was better than a boring conference to promote free thoughts association and musings on whatever was their most important goal at the moment.</p>
<p>However, as their strong minds, like those of fairies and, to a lesser degree, daemons, felt her intrusion and focused on the annoying sensation instead of continuing their thread of thoughts, it was a better move not to arise any suspicion with indiscriminate poking. The previous night, in fact, she had tried to dive into some minds, and the reactions had been fast but -luckily- only surprised. Alia had felt what vampires sensed when she attempted to find her way through their thoughts: it was just an headache, but vampires were never bothered by any kind of disease or impairment without suffering a major injury to their body. Hence their surprise, and suspicion.</p>
<p>Therefore, presently she was sitting in a rear row of the semicircular hall and pretended to listen to the speaker.</p>
<p>“…functional/fortified foods cater for personalised nutrition which aims at optimising individual health status… supplying the right mix of macro- and micronutrients necessary to maintain a healthy organism at all stages of life and in specific environments or activities… specific <em>phoods</em> are available for a range of morbidities… use of advanced technologies such as 3D printing has significantly contributed to long-term space sojourns at the beginning… insect or legume-based ‘<em>meat</em>’ is a commonly printed protein source, laced with specific nutrients to…”</p>
<p>Alia could already confirm that sex and money were the dominant cogitations in vampire minds, as she somehow expected given that they shared their nature with humans, whatever most vampires thought about their differences and superiority. Vampires, Alia had almost decided, were simply an upgraded version of humans, even if their minds were so much more fascinating. She felt a pull and a strength coming from them, thus she feared to get lost in their contemplation. At the moment, nothing interesting was emerging and she chose to leave that conference and look for another venue.</p>
<p>She wandered from a meeting room to a hall to the large corridors of the hotel, equipped with futuristic (to her eyes, in truth it likely was the current fashion) furnishings and relaxing lights, keeping her mind alert and receptive. She was able to gather more details on what kind of sexual entertainment vampires and humans had enjoyed earlier or the night before, on Hu Ke Xu’s personal involvement in Alabama/Texas shattered talkings on the space equipment deal and on some donors’ spying activities. All in all, nothing relevant but a good exercise.</p>
<p>It was almost three o’clock when Alia had had enough of eavesdropping on peoples minds. She had used those first two nights focusing mainly on vampires, and learning how their minds were shaped and worked, but it had been unavoidable to hear humans around them. Now, she was also tired.</p>
<p>Eric found her outside the meeting room Joseph Velasquez, Nantan and he had occupied for the last hour, her body reclined in a loveseat and her gaze over a picture on the opposite wall, unfocused. She turned to him and smiled. Eric briefly thought that that smile was exactly what he wanted to see on her face every night, possibly at his side. The last few days she had avoided stayingalone with him, maybe fearing his behaviour or not trusting herself around him (she had indeed hinted at that on occasion). He had seen her hesitation and it had felt as a kick on his guts.</p>
<p>Alia smiled at Eric’s sight, feeling overwhelmed by him. His beauty and the strength he exuded had always fascinated her, as well as his playfulness and self assuredness. Though, his friskiness was rarely visible now, and the image of his confidence had been tainted many years ago, when he had succumbed to Freyda and Felipe’s pressure. Would she ever be able to look at him without remembering those days? Was it so hard to accept his vulnerability?</p>
<p>Karin had told her about his time in this very town, the way he had worked his way out of captivity and the scars he had gained, the deepest and more painful of them having lost her. Alia had been hurt by the thought of him accusing himself of all wrongs, but then she had accused him of all wrongs. It was hard to be kind to someone when one was actively (and relentlessly) pitying herself; she felt ashamed, but this was not a significant improvement to her eyes.</p>
<p>Nantan, an Apache serving as second-in-command to Don Juan, New Mexico’s king, walked at Eric’s right and his mindprint was strong but unreadable; while Joseph Velasquez, the vampire succeeded as king of Texas, observed her intently a few paces back. He was comparing her body to that of his lover, a blond vampiress with hard features who appeared in his thoughts wrapped in a feeling of longing and lust. Joseph decided that he preferred the hard lines of his lover to the sweet and delicate looks of the telepath, and her golden skin did not hold a candle to his lover’s porcelain complexion.</p>
<p>Alia’s smile broadened and she stood up, trying to smooth her wrinkled trouser suit.</p>
<p>“Lady Alia,” Nantan bowed slightly, “your fame doesn’t do you justice.”</p>
<p>The fae responded in kind to his bow. “And what would my fame be?”</p>
<p>“That of a sweet fairy who has a penchant for blades… and a mind as sharp as one of them,” the dark skinned vampire bowed again. “Thank you for your… insight. My king will appreciate.”</p>
<p>Texas added his thanks and she felt his sincereness. It surprised her, and then she was amazed at her own wonder, realising at once that she had been so negatively impressed by the vampires she had met, that she did not expect any positive feeling from them. But from Eric and his children.</p>
<p>She felt ashamed once more. As if the evilness of a few should to be expected by them all. It was not an uplifting sensation to be in the ranks of those who had labelled her <em>crazy Sookie</em> long ago.</p>
<p>She could not hold Eric’s gaze while he spoke to her. They walked alone in the hallway, heading to her room, while Eric was giving her a last update and some instructions for the day after. They reached the lift and stopped. Its doors parted and slid inside the wall, showing a large compartment with seatings and a drink dispenser. Alia felt somehow embarrassed and noticed how Eric measured his behaviour in her presence. It seemed she had killed his spontaneity.</p>
<p>“I’m sorry, Eric,” she said before getting off the lift. “I thought very bad things about you, things you didn’t deserve…”</p>
<p>The vampire watched her, unsure as to what she was referring to. “Alia, I’m not… expecting anything from you. You should do what you feel like to do for… yourself. I—”</p>
<p>“I feel it, Eric. I disappoint you now, as you… disappointed me then,” she whispered, sad and tired. “But it’s me, I’m trying to… see beyond my nose, and sometimes it’s not easy. Well, it’s never easy.”</p>
<p>The corridor leading to her room was carpeted in a shade of red, with light golden drawings on the walls, white tables, loveseats and high mirrors. It was empty and silent. They walked slowly, his hand in the small of her back.</p>
<p>What happened next was fast and sudden. Her hearing blacked out for a few instants and Eric was laying on the floor at her side. She noticed the floor was aligned flush to her body and the red carpet was not so soft after all. She was laying on the floor but she did not remember to have fallen. A black pool widened at her side while she heard a hissing sound. Distant and ominous.</p>
<p>“What…?” Alia coughed and raised on her elbows, turning to Eric whoseeyes were cold and misty. “I’m fine, you?”</p>
<p>“Aargh,” he stood up lifting and leading her to the door of her room. The door opened as soon as the personal lock detected her presence, and they stumbled in the entrance hall. Her vampire guard laid on the floor, passed out. It was then that Alia understood what had happened and turned to Eric.</p>
<p>“What was it?”</p>
<p>He moved his head and leant on the wall. “D…d…rrsh…”</p>
<p>She froze and tried to hold him, succeeding only in accompany his fall to the floor. Blood gushed out from his throat, a large cut opened his windpipe, and an arm was almost completely severed at the elbow. Blood everywhere. His body, her body.</p>
<p>Alia moved as in a nightmare. Her actions were too slow and further slowed down by the terror that had taken hold of her body. Her mind a detached entity that watched the scene from afar. She put her wrist on Eric’s lips, but he shook his head. Then she tried to open his mouth and bare his teeth. He put up a feeble resistance, but did not bite her.</p>
<p>Out of the blue she heard him, but her tears prevented a clear view of his face. <em>Donors, donors, donors</em>. He did not want her. Alia stopped and an eerie coldness washed over her body. Like waddling in a dense medium, she retrieved the knife on her thigh and slashed open her wrist. Her scent loose, she let her blood drip from the wound.</p>
<p>Eric goggled at her, a twinge of fear in his eyes. But the pull was urgent, absolute. And deprived him of any will. He sucked her blood avidly, letting it leak from his mouth, drinking it until her heartbeat became a faint whisper in his ears.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0033"><h2>33. Chapter 33</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Eric was sweating and freezing at the same time, his hair stuck to the forefront and neck. Feeling lost in his body added up to his helplessness. Next, a blackness wrapped him forgivingly. An enticing fragrance filled his senses. Everything became warm, soft, luscious. He swallowed a spiced sweetness, but not the sugary kind. Nourishing. Intoxicating. He drank to exhaustion. Then he slid into an absolute sleep, laced with frenetic activity and powerful fulfilment. It was just right. Perfect.</p>
<p>Then he woke up screaming.</p>
<p>Eric did not hear his own scream because he was inside that thunderous sound as its solid vessel. It was a roar filled with terror and darkness.</p>
<p>Xeres, and two other weres, appeared at the door.</p>
<p>“Sir.” The were-cougar scanned the bedroom aiming her weapons around, while noticing the blinds were still down and no one but the king was inside. “Are you fine, sir,” she stated, posing and answering the implied question at once.</p>
<p>“Alia. Where’s Alia?” he asked with a scratching voice. Then he felt her inside, close. He swallowed and a familiar spiced sweetness invaded his mouth. He touched his throat, a large patch covered the left side. Then he noticed the bandaged left arm, and slowly everything came back to him. He shuddered and focused on what his guard was saying.</p>
<p>“… at the end of left corridor,” Xeres concluded. “The Regent asked to be called as soon as you woke up, I—”</p>
<p>“I woke up just to go to the bathroom, then I continue to rest,” he said. “I will call Pam personally afterward. You may go.”</p>
<p>Eric walked out of the room wearing only the pyjama’s pants, turned left and followed the corridor, entered into the last room. In the darkness of the space he saw a figure sleeping on the bed and felt the pull of her blood. He slid under the sheets, embraced the fae and fell asleep at once.</p>
<p>Eric woke up briefly several hours after, in the middle of the night, when Pamela came to see them. Alia’s breathing was light and her arms were around his chest. He continued to sleep till sunset.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Alia woke up slowly, as if wading up the current in a rushing river.</p>
<p>She felt her body regaining consciousness unhurriedly, and becoming aware of its position and surroundings from afar. Her limbs entwined other limbs and her breasts rubbed another chest. She smiled, eyes still closed. She slid a hand over the plane of that chest, then in the back till she reached his neck and hair. Soft, middle length. She stroked the nape and inhaled deeply, nuzzling between neck and shoulder. The other’s hand brushed her back and thigh.</p>
<p>Alia opened her eyes and found Eric’s eyes on hers.</p>
<p>“How are you?” they said as one.</p>
<p>“Fine,” both replied.</p>
<p>“Thank you,” she said.</p>
<p>“Thank you,” he said.</p>
<p>Then he stood up and went to the bathroom. He was out of the room in twenty minutes and Alia found herself alone, in an unknown room and in a foreign state of mind.</p>
<p>She felt incongruously aloof. There had been another attempt to her life and Eric had risked his life to save hers. Then, Eric had refused her blood and asked for donors: she had heard his mind’s crying for them. And she had forced him to drink from her.</p>
<p>She remembered all this as if it had happened to someone else and she had discovered it from an old picture on the mantelpiece of an unknown house. It was not something she could rationalise, nor really understand. It was simply the way she felt.</p>
<p>Pamela joined her some time later, to help packing her things and boarding a plane to Louisiana.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“What do you remember, exactly?” asked Pamela.</p>
<p>The vampiress had dropped by her place as every night since their coming back.</p>
<p>“Everything till I fainted, I guess,” answered Alia. Three days had passed since her last life attempt and she was still inhabiting a bubble of cold smoke.</p>
<p>“Anything more from what you told Eric?”</p>
<p>“No, I reported everything to him and Roxanne, even to Ford.”</p>
<p>“And how do you feel, now? I mean, Ludwig said you are slightly intoxicated by the magic, but what—”</p>
<p>“What magic are you talking about?” Alia asked.</p>
<p>“The magic that was detected around you, when the doctor visited you.”</p>
<p>Alia narrowed her eyes. “Explain.”</p>
<p>Pamela told her how she had found her and Eric, and what the doctor had said about the fae magic still lingering in the corridor, confirmed also by Batanya, her guard.</p>
<p>“Batanya?” interjected Alia. “Batanya? Batanya as in Isaiah’s bodyguard at the time of Rhodes, or homonymous?”</p>
<p>“The very same, I’d say,” confirmed the vampiress.</p>
<p>They were sitting in her living room. Only a lamp brightened the place, and the moonlight washed over from the glass wall adding a dreamlike air to the place. An owl called.</p>
<p>“How is it that I was not informed, and didn’t see her either?” Alia was too anaesthetised to be more reactive than asking a polite, even calm question. </p>
<p>“Mmm,” Pamela stalled.</p>
<p>“Pam, please,” Alia pleaded. “I’m on the verge of a nervous breakdown, or maybe this is it and I still don’t know.”</p>
<p>“Your family and Eric agreed to call a Britlingen for your protection and… not to tell you anything lest to anger you, and—”</p>
<p>“A fae warrior and those, vampire and were, supplied by Eric were not enough?”</p>
<p>“Apparently not, fae. And there’s not been any fae warrior around you.”</p>
<p>“Fae magic, uh?” Alia cocked her head to one side. “Indeed, I lost my hearing and… and… didn’t see who struck… Why Batanya did not appear?”</p>
<p>“That’s curious: she was bounced to her dimension and it took some time for her to get back, and you had already fainted,” Pamela explained. “Fae, you’ve been very stupid, or else something worse, to let go your full fae scent with an injured vampi—”</p>
<p>Alia’s eyes swelled with tears, and she hid the face in her hands. “He didn’t… want my… blood, didn’t… want… my blood… didn’t…”</p>
<p>“Shhh, fae,” Pamela felt awkward, patting her friend on the back as the faery’s pain sent her back in time, through decades of nothingness spent without the companion she had once loved.</p>
<p>Alia’s sobbing subsided after a while, and she stood in silence. Lost in unsavoury thoughts. Or simply faraway.</p>
<p>“I don’t think that was the case,” said the vampiress after a while. “Eric never does things in a simple way, less than ever in a counterproductive way.” She paused lengthly. “If he didn’t want your blood <em>in that moment</em>, it means there was something else that he needed more.”</p>
<p>Alia was taken aback. “But… he was dying, the blood loss weakened him so much that in a few minutes he would have passed out, it—”</p>
<p>“He’s no fool, Sookie,” the vampiress interjected. “Probably he thought that taking your blood in his state would have been too… dangerous for you.”</p>
<p>“What’s more dangerous than dying, Pam?”</p>
<p>“Exactly. He did not want to risk your life,” stated Pamela. “Not even for his own.” She let the fae absorb it. “He almost drained you, stupid fae. And it would have been his end as well.”</p>
<p>Alia watched her silently.</p>
<p>“When I let Miriam die… I— I—”</p>
<p>“You didn’t let Miriam die. Felipe did not—”</p>
<p>Pamela’s gaze was cold and distant. “I followed his orders… but I could have chosen not to abide to those rules… I—”</p>
<p>“You did what you thought—”</p>
<p>“I did what it had to be done to survive,” Pamela barked angrily. “What I thought it was necessary to live through those times. But I was wrong. I— I did not survive. Not that Pamela, at least.”</p>
<p>“You never… showed it,” Alia whispered.</p>
<p>“And you, fae? Did you survive that time?” asked Pamela.</p>
<p>Alia wrapped her jacket tighter around her chest.</p>
<p>“You’re right,” said Alia slowly. “Something died there.”</p>
<p>“It’s been a lose-lose situation for us all. We had to choose the least fatal course of action.” Pamela sat and stared at an indefinite point ahead of her. “I chose to let go of Miriam, who was mortal and already dying, to save myself, Eric and some of our retinue. Eric chose to divorce you to save you, me, Karin and his last trusted warriors.”</p>
<p>“I did not choose anything, Pam,” the fae stated flatly. “Maybe that’s why I felt doubly dejected. I lost everything and that’s all.”</p>
<p>No one had answered the owl’s calling. She whistled, ending with a beak snap. Very close. Alia felt her presence.</p>
<p>“Would you have chosen to sacrifice Eric, your brother, your friends?”</p>
<p>“No, obviously not!” Alia protested.</p>
<p>“Then, Eric interpreted well what was to be done, Sookie. And rest assured that he paid the higher price, because it’s always who decides who pays the most.”</p>
<p>“Sookie died there,” Alia added as if thinking it now, which was not the case. But it sounded as a due recalling and a final farewell.</p>
<p>“Welcome to Alia, then,” said Pamela with a thin smile. “I don’t know what, whom I became. Maybe it was a necessary mistake to learn a hard lesson. Though…”</p>
<p>“Pam, I never understood how much you… I mean, you never spoke about it, I… failed to see it.”</p>
<p>“I put it all in a sealed box and tried to forget it,” Pamela said. “Obviously, I didn’t. But you were in no shape to see much, remember?”</p>
<p>“Uh, I’m sorry, Pam.”</p>
<p>“Eric didn’t forget either,” Pamela added carefully. “And he also grew a huge guilt to top it all.”</p>
<p>Alia wiped her face, but tears kept falling silently. “Fuck! I can’t stand this stupid weeping.”</p>
<p>“Yes, it’s quite boring and bothering. It’s something you have in common with Sookie!”</p>
<p>“I have much more of Sookie’s bad habits!” Alia sniffed. “I was not prepared for what I found… I had sealed off my most painful memories, but when I discovered that he was free, king and happily married, I— I… tried my best not to recognise that they were not just memories.” Her face was now streaked with more tears. “I want him back and know it’s not possible. And I haven’t chosen this either. Fuck!”</p>
<p>“Why not possible?” asked Pamela.</p>
<p>Alia cleaned her eyes with a tissue Pamela had offered. “I’m not the sharing kind, Pam. And I’m not… the <em>other</em>.” This last word was spat out as a bacterial infection to avoid. “And that’s the only option I see. Not exactly a choice.”</p>
<p>Pamela bursted out in a fat laugh. “You’re jealous!”</p>
<p>“Coming from a vampire your remark is ridiculous: you are the most possessive and intolerant individuals, with all that blood offence shit, and the nose to detect… everything.”</p>
<p>“I think you should talk to Rehema, fae,” Pamela said casually. </p>
<p>“No, thanks,” replied Alia at once. “I see no need to expose myself to her… rightful objections and maybe retaliations.”</p>
<p>“Really. You should meet Rehema,” repeated the vampiress.</p>
<p>“Why?” Alia snapped angrily. “Do you think it had not been enough to meet Freyda? This one is even his chosen one, his loved one. No, but thanks for your kind thought. What the heck are you thinking?”</p>
<p>“To compare Rehema to Freyda is like equate chocolate to shit, fae.”</p>
<p>“Great! You even like her. I’m definitely dying to meet her!” hissed Alia. “And what’s more there’s nothing I can hold against her: he freely chose her and she had not to kill any previous wife.” Then, she rethought and asked, “Did she?”</p>
<p>“No, fae. When she proposed Eric was not… committed to anyone,” confirmed Pamela.</p>
<p>“Ah! It was her to propose,” Alia showed her teeth in an attempt to smile. “What a destiny: he is the target of so many women.”</p>
<p>“Vampires, Alia. If I recall rightly the only woman he ever wanted put up such a fuss about their marriage. More than once. Right?”</p>
<p>Alia looked sideways. “It’s not exact that he proposed. And it was long time ago… I—” The fae’s voice sounded full of regret. “I often thought what it could have been if…” Then, her words trailed off.</p>
<p>“A useless exercise,” said the vampiress. “Apply your efforts to solve this <em>mathematical</em> function: if you show clearly what you’re doing your best to hide, what would happen? If you clearly act upon what you really want, what would happen?”</p>
<p>Alia frowned.</p>
<p>“Then ask yourself what would happen if you… do nothing at all.”</p>
<p>Alia stilled.</p>
<p>“The worst case scenario seems the same, to me. Right?”</p>
<p>Alia managed to growl. </p>
<p>“But maybe not,” the vampiress watched her perfectly manicured nails. “Are you driving your life, or prefer to let others govern it? Maybe, that’s the lesson I had to learn: to never let others choose for me. Did I learn it? I’ve never been confronted again with difficult choices, but I think I’m ready to face them, now.” Pamela watched her friend right in the eyes. “Are <em>you</em> ready?”</p>
<p>Alia stood straight, breathing deeply. Silent.</p>
<p>“My piece of advice, for what it’s worth: choose to do what makes you feel better, be your own lawmaker and consider death your hidden companion in life.” Pamela walked to the large sliding doors, her gait strong and graceful. “All the rest is bullshit.”</p>
<p>Alia observed the vampiress leaving through the garden, where her flycar lieddown as a crouching dog. The owl called again, a high-pitched scream no one cared to reply.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Eric called again two nights later. He reported to Alia the result of the investigation on her life attempts, or alleged such, and asked if she had remembered anything more. Then, it struck her. But for the attempt on Cat Island, in which the apparent responsible was a servant, she had somehow lost consciousness or time. Alia did not know how she had reached this conclusion, but when she had fainted at home, or when she had lost some seconds in Oklahoma, something had happened that she could not recall. Not consciously, at least. Yet, she could tell that a part of her knew more.</p>
<p>Eric sounded considerate and kind. She wanted to yell at him, but refrained, not sure about what to cry about. She forgot to ask him about her Britlingen guard and the phone call ended abruptly as the vampire was due to address more urgent matters. <em>Be fine, Alia</em> were his last words. She had no time to reply, but at once a few things to yell at him crossed her mind.</p>
<p>She was just thinking those few things when Indira, her vampiress guard,informed her she had a visitor. Alia checked before answering and froze. After a few minutes she had not yet uttered a word and her guard was getting nervous. It was never advisable to keep a royal waiting, Alia read in her mind.</p>
<p>“Lady Alia,” called a delicate voice, “I’m sorry to knock at your door without an appointment. May I come in?”</p>
<p>Alia swallowed. She was wearing a shirt over knickers and nothing else. </p>
<p>“Come in, please,” Alia answered in a too high pitched voice. She disliked it but it was not possible to erase words once uttered.</p>
<p>The queen of Alabama showed up through the kitchen’s French window and came to a halt a few paces inside the room. Rehema wore a t-shirt and a pair of old fashioned jeans, but exuded elegance and effortless grace all the same. Alia shivered thinking of a time when she, the wife, met a queen, the would-be wife, and a cramp squeezed her guts. </p>
<p>Alia was not short, but the black vampiress towered over her and the fae cursed those more than ten centimetres that exposed her inadequacy.</p>
<p>“Sit down, please,” Alia gestured toward the breakfast counter and added, “Would you like something to drink? I was about to fix something to eat.”</p>
<p>“A glass of water will be fine, thank you.” Rehema sat on a stool and smiled.</p>
<p>“Is there something I might do for you?” Alia said putting a glass of water in front of her guest and a bowl of fruit for herself.</p>
<p>The vampiress nodded, sipped some water and watched the fae carefully. “Please, call me Rehema. It’s some time I wanted to meet you, lady Alia.”</p>
<p>The fae returned the gaze and opened her mind. The queen’s mind was relaxed and kind, as her figure, and emitted little sparks of concern. Or curiosity, Alia was not sure.</p>
<p>“Eric spoke much of you,” the vampiress started.</p>
<p>Alia said nothing and continued to eat her fruit.</p>
<p>“You look so… innocent and fragile,” Rehema said with smiling eyes.</p>
<p>“Not really.”</p>
<p>“I didn’t mean it to diminish you, lady Alia,” the vampiress quickly added. “I heard enough stories about you to know better than to judge you by your sweet appearance.”</p>
<p>Alia waved a hand as to forget the remark.</p>
<p>“And I know Eric likes only strong and assertive females who… challenge him.”</p>
<p>The fae stilled, but the vampiress’ mind was calm and her thoughts matched her words. She considered briefly to browse deeper in her mind, but then feared what she might find. However, she imagined all the same what she dreaded to find in the queen’s memories and a pang of jealousy cut through her chest. The vampiress was beautiful, clever, kind and respected. Alia had a hard time to keep her face blank and her behaviour restrained.</p>
<p>“However, sometimes, he may need to be understood, comforted and relieved of some burden.”</p>
<p>Alia lifted an eyebrow and waited. As she noticed that the queen did not continue, said, “That’s a wife’s prerogative, in my book.” </p>
<p>Rehema grinned and whispered, “Exactly.”</p>
<p>The fae felt a moderate turmoil in the other’s mind, but did not detect any danger, if not in that slightly unsettling smile.</p>
<p>“But it’s not from me that Eric needs comprehension, comfort and relief,” Rehema said. Her words were slow, dense. “It is from his first wife, the only one he chose and wanted beyond any political consideration, any economical advantage or whatever practical interest inherent in the choice.”</p>
<p>Alia stood silent, watching her. Puzzled.</p>
<p>“He’s far from perfect, but he did always his best to protect you, in the first place.” Rehema’s words rolled over the counter and invested the fae as a hot wind that scorched everything in its path. “In a very miserable situation, he tried -maybe failing, or not succeeding completely, I concede- to do right by you, drastically curtailing his chances to ever be happy, both because he gave you up and because he hurt you in doing so.”</p>
<p>Rehema’s eyes showed a hint of sadness and anger, but her mind broadcasted only commitment and determination. Alia was baffled. The vampiress continued in a less easy tone. “Eric is a male, and to worsen the situation he’s overbearing and passionate: definitely not a favourable mix to encourage discussion. But you’re under his skin: you’ve been since the beginning and nothing has changed.”</p>
<p>The fae had ceased to eat for some time now, and watched the vampiress with anguish. “Is he not… happy with you?”</p>
<p>Rehema laughed. “Not in the way you’re thinking, I guess. I’m one of his best friend, though he’s not my lover, and I’m not his. My companion is Cillian, my head of security.”</p>
<p>“So… why did you marry?” Alia’s face was twisted in a surprised dislike.</p>
<p>“You’re so… naive? or, just idealistic…” murmured the vampiress.</p>
<p>“Maybe only candid or, more likely, irremediably stupid?” snapped Alia. “I’m aware of political or economical, social motives. Yet, I also know the existence of agreements, treaties or understandings to manage those further reasons.”</p>
<p>“Definitely fascinating. I understand even more Eric’s obsession,” Rehema continued unperturbed. “There are not many like you, believe me.”</p>
<p>“Or, perhaps, it’s you who don’t know many,” the fae retorted unkindly, and started again to munch a slice of apple.</p>
<p>After a while the queen asked, casually, “Do you?”</p>
<p>“Uh?”</p>
<p>“Do you know many who married for… love?”</p>
<p>Alia thought about it. “Jason and Michele, Karin and Hunter, Russell and Bartlett…”</p>
<p>Rehema waited in silence, then smiled. “Not a long list, I’d say.”</p>
<p>“One more reason to increase it,” the fae blurted out, annoyed.</p>
<p>Rehema laughed again. “I agree.”</p>
<p>Shortly after the vampiress stood up, bowed slightly and said, “It’s been… refreshing to meet you, lady Alia.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0034"><h2>34. Chapter 34</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars</p>
<p>But in ourselves, that we are underlings.”</p>
<p>(W Shakespeare,</p>
<p><em>Julius Caesar</em>, Act I, Scene III, L. 140-141).</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>The two storey villa on the shores of Lake Erie was dimly lit and, from the luxuriant forest of silver maple, green ash and red oak trees, was just a hidden frame. At least to the daemon’s sight which, given the moonless night, was negligible.</p>
<p>Cataliades waited for the ancient vampiress and enjoyed the fresh breeze walking, slowly and carefully, on the stony lakefront.</p>
<p>“Desmond,” a scratchy voice reached him from behind. “I’d say a round belly hinders your gait.”</p>
<p>The daemon managed to turn and bowed without really seeing the vampiress. </p>
<p>“It keeps me company, Pythia.”</p>
<p>It was always unsettling to be the object of the ancient seer’s gaze which, despite her invasive cataract, did not miss much. The implied consideration was that what she saw came from her visions. More creepy then, but the daemon had never dared to ask.</p>
<p>“Here, help me,” the vampiress’ request was accompanied by a cold chuckle.</p>
<p>“Pythoness, you are mocking me,” the daemon tried to hide the shiver when her arm went around his. The diminutive figure, dressed in a black silky robe, seemed to hover a few centimetres over the ground and did not really lean on him.</p>
<p>“I don’t see very well, as of lately,” the sibyl started in a whisper.</p>
<p>Cataliades had long ago learned to respect the lengthy pauses of the ancient vampiress speaking style.</p>
<p>“My visions are merging and morphing in unwelcome ways. Blurring at best.”</p>
<p>The Pythia was leading him through a pathway only she could see.</p>
<p>“I need to… order them… somehow,” she said.</p>
<p>They walked in blackness and silence, the noise of a snapped twig or the fallen foliage moved by their feet the only company.</p>
<p>“It’s like the time is… stalling.” The vampiress stopped and lifted her head toward him. “The uncertainty is great: this is a very dangerous place to dwell, daemon.”</p>
<p>“Is not always uncertain? The future, I mean.”</p>
<p>“A certain degree of uncertainty is natural and even beneficial. But I’m talking about my visions. They have become stronger but… more elusive, as if the water doesn’t know where to flow.”</p>
<p>“Hardly a simile to imagine,” observed the lawyer.</p>
<p>“Hardly a situation I ever wanted to get sticked into, Desmond.”</p>
<p>The more she called him by name, the more he got nervous; and that night she had began that way. Probably, he would have ended leaning on her.</p>
<p>“Last weeks have been… a rollercoaster. Our… paths have changed so many times, I don’t know if what I see is simply a vision of the possibilities ahead of us, or a succession of discarded chances we missed, or else it’s my outlook or my perspective strongly influencing my views…” the vampiress paused, verbally and bodily, and sighed loudly. “I don’t know… I need to stop and regroup.”</p>
<p>“Are Northman and my goddaughter still in… your visions?”</p>
<p>The Ancient One sighed again. “It doesn’t work like that. It’s not that I have a filing cabinet and I check the subject’s file if I need to know anything.” She looked tired, a mental fatigue that angered her and sharpened her already cutting mind.</p>
<p>She continued. “If I want to… have an overview on someone’s paths, let’s say, I need to focus on that subject, in a personal way. I need to meet and be touched by that individual. Mmm, yes, let’s say so…”</p>
<p>“Do you mean that… it is your interest the key to open the filing cabinet?” tried the daemon with a casual look at her features. To no avail, obviously. Her barely visible face was blank, as if all her expression did was to keep together her wrinkles.</p>
<p>The vampiress smiled without changing her countenance, accompanying the eerie effect with a grating sound. “Oh, daemon. You’d trivialise a masterpiece of La’Kart…”</p>
<p>“Uh?”</p>
<p>“…but luckily you don’t even know the name.”</p>
<p>The Ancient One resumed her stroll, and Cataliades at her side tried not to step on every leaf or small branch in their path toward the vampiress’ residence.</p>
<p>“It is some time I don’t see Northman, or your goddaughter, in my visions… but I think they’re influencing them all the same.”</p>
<p>As usual the daemon waited, and wondered if his presence was able to influence in any way her visions, their future, the balance of energies involved. Whatever.</p>
<p>“Tell me, daemon,” started again the seer, “are they seeing each other?”</p>
<p>“Northman and Alia?” Cataliades asked absent-mindedly. “Yes, you wanted them to meet often and I increased Alia’s engagements with the crown.”</p>
<p>“Desmond, don’t be so dense for free,” hissed the vampiress. “Are they fucking?” </p>
<p>“Ah,” exclaimed Cataliades looking at her. “From what I’m told, yes…”</p>
<p>“…and?”</p>
<p>“And nothing. Latsis said they had sex several times.”</p>
<p>“How many times, exactly?”</p>
<p>Cataliades watched the old vampiress, then retrieved his tablet and scrolled some pages. “I recorded six times, but it could be more.”</p>
<p>“Mmm… six times…” the vampiress stopped just before the stairs to the back porch. “Six plus some more… intense events.”</p>
<p>“Very private things, I may say. Only few people know of it.” Cataliades waited some minutes, then asked, “Is it a… good thing?”</p>
<p>Shortly after the Pythia fixed her eyes, veiled but not less piercing, on the daemon. “Hope they had fun. But I did not see that fun in my visions. They’re still… far. Maybe they’re not meant to be one, after all.”</p>
<p>Cataliades nodded.</p>
<p>“But I will insist some more, just to be sure no stone has been left unturned. How is the say?, it’s not over till it’s over.”</p>
<p>“Do you still think they might be a keystone in your visions?”</p>
<p>“Mmm, hard to tell, daemon,” the vampiress answered after a while. “Yet, every time they get close, my visions expand, deepen and repeat themselves for a while. Since the last time we met it happened twelve times. The prevented attempts to her life could account for the more intense interactions between them.”</p>
<p>“Uh.”</p>
<p>“From what I know, recently there was another life attempt. He saved her and got badly injured, then she saved him. Right?”</p>
<p>“Roughly.”</p>
<p>“They’re unpredictable or… fickle, or just had enough of each other. But their feelings are strong. And maybe they’re drifting apart exactly for that, too much regret, pain and guilt to have room for anything else.” She paused. “Yet, this time I have to be sure to have pursued this path till its natural end. Stakes are high, too high to ignore them.”</p>
<p>They sat down on a rocking sofa facing the black outline of trees and lake. The air was cold now, and the daemon appreciated the sharpness of the breeze blowing from west.</p>
<p>“Stakes are high,” repeated Cataliades when the chill had awakened his mind.</p>
<p>“Mmm,” murmured the vampiress closing her eyes.</p>
<p>After long, she spoke again. “Our origins are about to meet us again, and this time won’t be a quiet encounter.”</p>
<p>Fifteen minutes elapsed while the vampiress rested in downtime.</p>
<p>“Our spatial expansion will take us where we did begin, but we are not how, what, who we were… the risk to succumb is great.”</p>
<p>All of a sudden the pleasant coldness of the night gripped the daemon’s generous stomach and chilled its folds, even if his belly was well distended and surely did not hide unused corners.</p>
<p>“Are you implying that—”</p>
<p>“I’m… nothing, Desmond. Just visions, and little crumbs scattered in our path.” interrupted the vampiress with a voice as ominous as a broken mirror.</p>
<p>He managed to contain the bumps on his skin, and waited.</p>
<p>“Besides, there’s also a closer… problem,” added the Pythia with a flat tone, her sharpness dissipated into the night. “Some humans are trying to drive a wedge among supes, vampires and weres. Luckily they don’t know more praeternaturals. See to it that… someone notices it. I’ll send you details.”</p>
<p>“Very well, Ancient One. Anything else?”</p>
<p>“Mmm,” the vampiress seemed to drift again in downtime. Minutes passed silently. “A little nudge, maybe…”</p>
<p>Cataliades smiled to no one.</p>
<p>“And another thing, too. I know fairies are your… cousins, daemon,” she showed her teeth in a scary grin of hers. “And I know relatives can be problematic sometimes. Now, for instance, they’re stirring up things.”</p>
<p>“Aren’t they always?” he quipped.</p>
<p>“Then, let’s say they’re messing with my vision. Stop them.”</p>
<p>“Maybe, I need something more,” said the daemon. “Where should I look?”</p>
<p>“Close, Desmond. Annoyingly close.”</p>
<p>The Pythia stood up without more words, leaving the daemon rocking on the sofa in the blackest night of the month.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0035"><h2>35. Chapter 35</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The <em>Cataliades Arbitration &amp; Mediation Lawyers</em> firm’s headquarters were more animated at night, and Alia had slowly moved her working timetable to late evening/night to better interact with her collaborators, namely Diantha, Leonard and Hunter. In fact, for some time now, her assignments with vampires had increased to the point to have become her most numerous clients. And now, it seemed that Great Louisiana had become her only client. It included all sheriffdoms and all the major businesses in vampire hands.</p><p>Her single most requested kind of job was interviewing prospective or actual employees. Some important companies in the supernatural community demanded routinely screening of their work force and, in case of large or important corporate meetings, her discreet presence was sought as a safety measure.</p><p>A few years ago, the Cataliades firm had signed an agreement with the Crown that included the service of telepaths and lawyers for vampire companies in some specific fields at preferential tariffs, as well as a Protocol of Mediation for the Chambers of Commerce which offered an unspecified consulting and mediation assistance. Fairy and daemon businesses knew what was behind the service’s hazy depiction and relied on it for their interactions with humans and, since Alia’s availability, between their two species.</p><p>Alia never participated in assignments which included fairies and vampires or daemons and vampires. Indeed, she was unaware of the extension and depth of their relationship, even if she knew of the existence of several agreements and conventions concluded or renewed at different times.</p><p>Alia was enjoying the urban scenery from her room’s windows, notably the brightly lit causeway over the lake, when she sensed her godfather’s mindprint along the corridor which led to her office. He knocked lightly and entered after her invitation. He had just come back from an important solo assignment to the North, and it was already a couple of weeks that they had not met for their usual weekly afternoon tea.</p><p>“Desmond,” the fae hugged him, “it’s some time. How are you?”</p><p>“Oh, dearest. Fine, and you?”</p><p>“Very well.”</p><p>“Mmm,” he broke the embrace and watched her carefully. “So what? I feel your excitement, turmoil… what…?”</p><p>“It’s some time I wanted to tell you something. I… I… don’t know where to start from.”</p><p>“Usually the beginning is a natural starting point, dearest,” the daemon quipped.</p><p>“I read vampires, very well, as humans or weres,” Alia whispered, “only not all of them. A good share, I’d say.”</p><p>The daemon smiled one of his half smiles. His face lit up as that of a little boy opening a Christmas gift whose content was expected. There was a sort of confirmed anticipation, and the pleasure to have predicted right.</p><p>“I expected so, my child. Since you had Northman’s blood… it was a possibility to take into consideration. Are you fine?”</p><p>She nodded. “I don’t understand. It’s not the first time I had Eric’s blood, or vampire blood in general, and it never happened before. I had a few glimpses, but it only happened twice, three times before.”</p><p>“You’re fae, now. Very much so.” Cataliades sat down and continued, “How long did it take to develop this… new skill?”</p><p>“As soon as I woke up from my healing sleep. It’s more than a month and a half now, and it doesn’t seem to… decline…” Alia paused, then spoke again. “But even before that I… heard some stray thoughts, emotions, something.”</p><p>“Have you had more of his blood?”</p><p>“No,” she said, “why should I have?”</p><p>“Sorry, Alia,” the daemon tried to hide his smile. “I don’t know very well vampire sexual habits, but I thought they drank from and gave their blood to their… partners.”</p><p>Alia stilled and felt the heat crawling up on her face and neck. “You knew already?” It was a statement with a slight questioning mark, but she did not expect an answer. “It’s not like that… I mean it’s not a rule, it depends on the… I drank only when I was injured and I gave him my blood only when he was injured… we had sex just a few times… nothing important, though. No, I mean… I don’t know. I don’t know.”</p><p>“Hush, Alia. You don’t have to justify anything. You two have a shared past to clear between you, and if there’s still something you want to share, it’s perfectly right.”</p><p>“I don’t know what it’s happening, Desmond,” she let herself fall on the sofa and focused on her breathing. She felt like weeping, but there was not sadness. It was just a confused emotional answer. “Fuck! I don’t want to weep, fucking tears. They come out without my permission. Sorry.” A hand went to her cheek to wipe any tear that had escaped her attempt to stop them. There was none. “I don’t know what to do.”</p><p>Cataliades moved at her side, his large belly preventing a comfortable embrace. “First of all, cry all you want or don’t-want. If it serves to relieve you of some pressure, it’s good. Then, we’ll see to what you don’t know.”</p><p>Alia waited for tears to come, then calmed down. “I don’t think it serves any reasonable purpose… this continuous weeping, I mean. It’s ridiculous, that’s all. I think.” But no tear came.</p><p>“Maybe you’re too hydrated and need to lose water faster,” quipped the daemon. “Now, what is it you don’t know?”</p><p>The fae wiped her face of those unshed tears and sat straight. “Eric,” she started nervously, “we spoke… sort of, at least… I didn’t imagine he felt so… guilt and sorry for what happened years ago.”</p><p>“Decades ago for him.”</p><p>“Yes. Pam and Karin said something, but… well, they’re his children and love him unconditionally, so… Rehema came to my place less than two weeks ago.”</p><p>“The queen?” Cataliades did not hide his surprise. “Did she threaten you?” Alia heard a gentle mockery in his tone.</p><p>“No, no. It was weird… I…”</p><p>“Did you tell the king? I know they’re very close but he has to protect you—”</p><p>“It seems there’s no one to protect, in that sense, Desmond,” Alia interjected, “the queen said they’re… just friends. Her lover is her bodyguard, she said.”</p><p>“Did you ask the king?”</p><p>“No, certainly not. I… we…”</p><p>“If you are seeing each other it’s better to clear—”</p><p>“Desmond, we are not <em>seeing each other</em>. We… just had sex a few times,” the fae said reluctantly. The previous night Eric had dropped at her place unannounced, to discuss the day before’s questioning of some weres involved in new accidents in Arkansas, Texas and Mississippi. It had ended with them rolling on a rug and repeatedly yelling their pleasure without much discretion. Alia had even asked him to bite her, and their orgasms had soared higher. Waves of pleasure amplification leaving them positively drained of energy and worries. For a second Alia wondered if daemons had the same sharp olfactive sense of vampires or weres, and anticipated a reaction from her godfather.</p><p>“Mmm,” Cataliades kept his face blank, “and what don’t you… know?”</p><p>“I… I… I…” Alia made a start and stopped a few times, then exhaled and started anew, “I don’t know what to do.”</p><p>He nodded encouragingly.</p><p>“There’s a pain and a regret I can’t erase, even resentment… rationally I know he did absolutely nothing to hurt me on purpose, but exactly the contrary… yet, I feel this weight on me… what’s more I… I…”</p><p>The daemon took her hands and squeezed them gently. “Probably, I’m the least indicated person to counsel you, dearest. It’s always hard and painful to descend inside ourselves and unfold our most masked feelings. However, that’s not a reason to avoid it… what you feel… what you really want.” Cataliades lifted her chin, and continued. “Answers are inside of you. When you’re strong enough they’ll come to you.”</p><p>Alia closed her eyes. “I fear what I feel. I… fear that if I let out my feelings, I’ll expose myself to… another disappointment, and I won’t stand it without being definitively crushed.”</p><p>“Take your time, Alia. But remember that fear is never a sentiment to act upon. Let it flow through you, get rid of it and then, only then, decide what to do.”</p><p>Alia nodded, once. It was all reasonable and very rational, the right thing to do. It was just a pity, and a major issue, that emotions were not rational nor amenable to good suggestions. And her godfather was also being unusually sympathetic. Then she considered that she knew exactly nothing about his life outside work, and some more work.</p><p>“Desmond, do you have a… love interest? Actually, I mean. A companion, someone you share your life with.”</p><p>Cataliades lips turned in a bitter pout. “I met the love of my life, once. Long ago. When he died I… never recovered properly, I guess. Never allowed anyone else to get too close. But it’s fading away, a little piece at a time. And I’m loosing the strength to fight this oblivion. So, one day he won’t be with me anymore… and I fear that day. Stupid, eh?”</p><p>Alia caressed his face lovingly, and then a sudden realisation struck her. “Fintan?”</p><p>He nodded, a sad smile growing on his face. “He loved Adele… and me. It was different, and I accepted it. It was his way to be, and he wanted children. We had planned to move definitely together at Adele’s death. But, you see, best laid plans don’t stop unpleasant things from happening.”</p><p>“Desmond, I’m so sorry for you…”</p><p>“Don’t be. We had a couple of centuries and it’s more than most people have. It’s an enormity, for instance, in comparison to what little you had.”</p><p>She nodded and giggled in a stupid way, surely in an inappropriate way.</p><p>“You know, I’ve always thought you were secretly in love with my grandmother!”</p><p>Cataliades stood up and went to the window, turning his back to Alia. “Now, enough with bitterness and pain. Coming to you and vampires,” the daemon turned and his face was devoid of emotion, “you should not tell anyone about your new skill. Did you tell Eric?”</p><p>“No, I haven’t told anyone.”</p><p>“And, I guess, you did mask your findings if coming from a vampire source, right?” Cataliades mind worked fast and sharp.</p><p>“Yes, I did so. It’s not ever easy, though.”</p><p>“And you had not more vampire blood since more than a month and a half, right?”</p><p>She nodded.</p><p>“And the reading is not decreasing, right?”</p><p>Again, she nodded.</p><p>“Now, a very important question: do you read the king?”</p><p>Alia felt a light tingling at the nape, and instinctively tightened her mind’s shields. “No, I don’t read Eric,” she paused briefly, “nor Pam or Karin.”</p><p>“Good,” Cataliades seemed pleased. “What about the queen?”</p><p>Alia had opened the fenced area of her mind that was available to third parties’ observation, and infused calmness and trust in it. “No, not even her,” she lied without flinching or tainting the feeling of confidence she had shaped so perfectly, just added a smear of surprise and innocence. Actually, everybody saw this <em>unvirtue</em> in her, so why disappointing them and confusing their rightful expectations? Alia watched her godfather, hiding her different turmoil and asked, “What should I do?”</p><p>“For the moment, nothing. It’s very important that no one knows of it.”</p><p>Alia nodded and knew she had just done a mistake.</p><p>
  
</p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>Alia was bothered by that for days.</p><p>Her godfather had been right and she had known it herself perfectly, having kept her mouth shut for more than a month and a half. Now, it had elapsed more than a week and she had changed strategy: she had forgiven her lapse of judgement on the opportunity to keep her lips tight even with him (she deemed useless to hold a grudge against herself), and promised herself to let it disappear slowly in the background noise.</p><p>Diantha and she were coming back from two long days at the <em>Heaven’s Door</em>, a fairy-daemon venture just outside New Orleans and the most expensive, luxurious hotel of Louisiana. They had interviewed forty six prospective employees for high level positions: sales manager, housekeeping manager, first and second concierge, night auditor manager. </p><p>They accessed the <em>Cataliades Lawyers’</em> offices by the roof, having landed there with the flytaxi offered by the hotel’s company. They were going down to their floor with a personnel lift when Diantha’s tablet chimed. Latsis asked her to join him later and she replied inviting him at her place.</p><p>“You confirmed youllbein Shreveport forthe weekend, right?” Diantha sort of stated with a tired voice.</p><p>“Yes, I need at least two days of sleep-sun-family therapy,” said Alia sighing. “I’ll stop at the lady’s room then join you at Desmond’s office in a few minutes. Start reporting him.” She got off the lift and headed right, leaving her bag to the little daemon.</p><p>When she knocked at her godfather’s room shortly after, Alia felt immediately something lingering in the air. A bothering sensation, mostly, and when she entered the abrupt silence was unpromising.</p><p>Cataliades and Diantha turned their faces to her, and Andy or Andie, one of the seven assistants at that floor, a heavy daemon with a raucous voice always on the verge of coughing, stood in front of them perplexed, but not embarrassed.</p><p>“Good evening,” greeted Alia with a smile. “Anything interesting?”</p><p>“Bah! Cross-proposals, not that fun,” the assistant murmured picking a few folders and striding out of the room, her large breasts bouncing as she moved.</p><p>“What kind of proposals?” Alia sat down on the sofa before the huge desk for the staff meeting. “Ah, Desmond, before I forget: I had to interview forty six individuals, mostly daemons, five fairies, instead of thirty five, the amount agreed.”</p><p>Cataliades and Diantha sat down in silence.</p><p>“Well?”</p><p>“Marriage proposals,” said Cataliades, “mostly vampires.”</p><p>“No one can’t deny that vampires know how to declare wars with style!” Alia quipped and smiled. “Who is proposing to whom, then?”</p><p>Cataliades read from his tablet, “Great Nebraska proposed to Missouri; Missouri proposed to Great Louisiana; Colorado proposed to lady Alia Brigant.”</p><p>“What the heck…?” Alia stood up and watched both daemons.</p><p>No one replied and Alia bursted out in laughs.</p><p>“Heck!” she said, then added, “Sorry, I almost fell for it! You just exaggerated throwing in Great Louisiana.”</p><p>Diantha giggled and stopped abruptly as Cataliades glared at her.</p><p>“I’m really sorry, dearest,” the daemon started, “no one is joking here.”</p><p>Alia let herself fall on the sofa and looked around the room as to confirm that everything was at its place. After a few minutes she sat straight, smoothed her trousers and pulled up the sleeve of her jacket.</p><p>“Do you have already informed the… recipients by formal communication?” asked the fae.</p><p>“Not yet. They arrived within the last two hours and Andie had just handed me the mail,” answered Cataliades exhaling aloud. He equipped, and kept updated, his firm with the best computers, devices, machines for any conceivable use, but preferred to read his mail on paper. Actually, it was a polymer resembling the real thing.</p><p>“How long is it supposed to take a formal answer to this type of… business?” Alia was addressing her questions to her godfather, but noticed that Diantha was moving her right foot as if following a rhythm. “Diantha, is anything bothering you?”</p><p>“Idont thinkso,” the little daemon said, then repeated, “I don’t think so.”</p><p>“Would you be so kind to search a map of vampire kingdoms with my tablet? I think I’ve got one in the folder <em>USA Kingdoms</em>, a subfolder of <em>Americas</em>. Would you?” Alia smiled and gave her tablet to the daemon.</p><p>Cataliades watched the exchange, then spoke. “A delay of a week, ten days is acceptable if the answer is negative. Less than a week if it represents the opening of negotiation.”</p><p>“Talks are private, right? There’s no need to inform clans’ councils or other authority?”</p><p>“Right. Only when the agreement is signed, the contract is sent to the council or both councils if the king/queendoms are of different clans. If only one is a king/queen, just one council. In your case, your house must be informed at once and the negotiation is—”</p><p>“Desmond,” the fae lifted a hand. “I just need a few days to think it over, then I will inform Niall of my decision myself, if you don’t mind.”</p><p>“As it suits you, dearest.” The smile on the daemon’s face was real, but the pointy teeth gave it a weird look.</p><p>“Thank you, Diantha,” Alia took the tablet and watched the colourful map. “Desmond, I think you have to show and explain a few things to me. Diantha, however, has a date with her lover. We can release her for the evening, can we?”</p><p>Diantha stood up and waited for a nod from her uncle.</p><p>“Sure, you may go, my child,” he accepted her kiss on the cheek and added, “And no need to bother the secretary with these details. I will personally inform the king after due consideration on the correctness of the proposal.”</p><p>When they were alone, Alia went to retrieve two glasses of wine and sat across from Cataliades.</p><p>“Vampires are troublesome and dangerous, yet…” Alia clinked her glass against the daemon’s and sipped thoughtful. “Do you think that our little daemon will speak?”</p><p>“Mmm,” Cataliades grinned delighted. “She won’t say anything about the proposal to Northman, but will surely report the proposal to you. Be assured of it. Wasn’t it your plan?”</p><p>Alia blushed lightly. “Ugh, was it so evident?”</p><p>“Not to Diantha, at less than a century she’s practically a young girl, unconcerned and light.”</p><p>“Fine. I need to understand a few things to know how to move on this chessboard.” Alia started studying the map of American kingdoms.</p><p>“I like what I see, Alia,” smiled the daemon, “and I think we’ll have fun. Go ahead.”</p><p>“Correct me and fill in the blanks,” said the fae after a quick glance at the lawyer. “Great Nebraska is fearing to stay isolated between two blocs: Zeus Clan’s group of Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming; and Amun clan’s group of Great Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Indiana. His or her (I don’t remember who is) proposal to Missouri is just a way to start his/her bloc to the North. Iowa and Illinois could be the next to be contacted if this proposal is rejected.”</p><p>“Correct,” nodded the lawyer, “and the proposal will be surely refused.”</p><p>“Yes. Missouri (the Russian, right?), in fact, has made his move and would like to come into the Amun’s group. What does he expect? That Eric divorces Alabama? This is not happening, too many economical and financial interests that both want to keep. He has exposed himself to a sure rejection: did he want an excuse to quarrel and… what?”</p><p>“Not necessarily. Vampire law is different from human’s, and you are reasoning with this latter. Vampire consider marriages among rulers exactly as old human monarchs: they are means to fortify economies and ensure territories and their resources,” explained the daemon. “However, vampires do not have moral or ethical tenets against… threesome or more. Therefore, in this case, if both consorts of the existing couple do agree, they can marry the third spouse.”</p><p>Alia swallowed hard and felt a light dizziness. After a certain stretched silence, she asked, “Do you think that Great Louisiana or Alabama would consider that possibility?”</p><p>“In truth, I cannot exclude it altogether, but I wouldn’t buy a dress for that marriage.” Cataliades poured some more wine in their glasses and drank slowly, washing his mouth with the strong, sweet port. “What’s more, your little spicy stunt with Diantha will have consequences on many levels, uh?”</p><p>“I’m not so sure anymore, Desmond. Actually, I think it’s been childish and rash.”</p><p>“Nothing has happened, yet,” the daemon’s voice was sweet in his peculiar way, “you just asked a few days to understand what had just happened. Nothing weird. On the contrary, it would have been rash and childish not to study the circumstances and formulate the best possible answer for that king.”</p><p>“Coming to him,” Alia finally said, “why Colorado wants me? What do I represent?”</p><p>“Hu Ke Xu is… peculiar. I assisted him many times but haven’t yet understood the man, let’s say so.” Cataliades leant on the backrest, then gathered his hands over the round belly. “Four, maybe five decades ago he tried to marry Wyoming, Mrs Adrianne Bakkali. That marriage would have been a good choice for both vampires but something did not fit the bill, evidently. I don’t know who slipped out but, at the end, they came out partners in some financial and economical ventures and the <em>agreement</em> held very well. I think that something tilted the balance as of lately. You see, Mrs Bakkali has became very powerful for her political and economical liaisons with… Faery and—”</p><p>“I remember to have used a portal there,” Alia smiled, “in Wyoming. Many times, in my trips to Earth.”</p><p>“Mmm,” the daemon nodded, “Mr Hu is a very good entrepreneur, he had -and has- his hands in many big businesses during these decades, as far as I know. But… managed to lose a lot of money either. It’s just speculation, but I think that Mr Hu wants to get free of Wyoming’s grip. I heard something recently, that he had a major debacle and someone went to his rescue, a lot of money…”</p><p>“I heard it too,” smiled Alia. “But someone played dirty with him.”</p><p>“Whatever. If he marries you, he will have his own portal and, most likely, a good part of fae economy on this continent will move to his kingdom.”</p><p>Alia gaped at Cataliades.</p><p>“Niall won’t be happy, but he will let you choose whomever you want. Dillon will be interested in making good business with him, and will pit Colorado against Wyoming to have the best deal, but at the end he will choose your husband, knowing you’ll be here watching for his interest. Brigant’s interests, therefore your own interest.” Cataliades smiled, then added, “Colorado will also gain a full time telepath, and a fae wife. And this last part, too, is not a secondary benefit for a vampire. It’s something I heard, though, I don’t really know what it is related to.” The daemon’s grin was wide and slightly unsettling.</p><p>“Just a suggestion, Desmond,” said Alia finally. “If the rationale of your smile is to get your counterpart anxious, you got it. But if your intention is to communicate joy and amusement, you are way off.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0036"><h2>36. Chapter 36</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>It was customary procedure to deliver marriage proposals with a messenger, instead of using more prosaic means of communication. The only tribute to times, therefore, was to use the appointed legal representative as formal emissary. The <em>Cataliades Arbitration &amp; Mediation Lawyers</em> was the appointed firm of Amun Clan, House Brigant and a few daemon’s lineages.</p>
<p>Therefore, Diantha brought personally two hand written letters to the royal chancellery, namely to the royal secretary Nikomachos Latsis, her lover, and now Latsis stood facing the king in his study, while the wall screen showed the regent’s scowling face waiting to resume their, clearly private, conversation.</p>
<p>“Niko,” murmured the king annoyed, “Pam is already depleting my reserve of patience for the whole month. I guess it’s really, really important your… interruption.”</p>
<p>“I’m afraid it is, sir,” answered Latsis unfazed by the other’s irritation. “You received two marriage proposals.”</p>
<p>“What the fuck with all these marriages now,” Pamela’s voice bursted out of the speakers. “I guess I have shopping to do soon.”</p>
<p>“Mr Cataliades will be available for you any time, he said,” Latsis added.</p>
<p>“What are you waiting, Niko? Read those fucking letters,” said Eric without masking his mounting rage.</p>
<p>“Eric, you’re so sought after, you should be pleased!” Pamela teased.</p>
<p>“Pam, definitely you never mastered the art of understanding when closing your fucking mouth.”</p>
<p>“Oh my king, if we’re losing our best telepath to Colorado and your good grace as well, it will be really sad to stay at court!”</p>
<p>“Pamela!” Eric turned to the screen and dropped his fangs with a long hiss.</p>
<p>Latsis coughed diplomatically and read aloud, “To the attention of His Majesty Eric—”</p>
<p>“Niko, cut it out.”</p>
<p>“Mr Dmitri Smirnov, king of Missouri, is pretender since two days. The time stamp is 22h01,” stated the secretary, then opened the second letter and blanched. Then he smiled in a contained way and declared, “Lady Alia Brigant is pretender since two days: the time stamp is 21h31.”</p>
<p>The regent’s laugh filled the room for a few seconds, then stopped abruptly. “And I think the proposal of Colorado came just some minutes before that! Our sweet fae is having fun.”</p>
<p>“Niko?” asked Eric.</p>
<p>“I don’t know, sir.”</p>
<p>“Your little daemon is so diligent to inform you well ahead of Colorado’s move, but didn’t think about such a detail?” Pamela told the secretary mockingly.</p>
<p>Latsis exhaled loudly and texted quickly on his tablet. “Regent, your humour is out of place and misleading. Diantha was just speaking of her friend in a private conversation: it’s me who thought it could have been a useful information.” A faint chime signalled a message in his device. “However, you’re right: 20h45.”</p>
<p>“Eric,” the vampiress purred excited, “our sweet fae landed the problem on your doorstep!”</p>
<p>“Pam. If you don’t have anything intelligent and useful to say, shut the fuck up.”</p>
<p>Another diplomatic cough from the secretary drew the vampires’ attention to him. “Now, there’s another interesting detail. Just relayed, regent. It seems that Great Nebraska proposed to Missouri, same day, earlier.”</p>
<p>“Well, well, well…” the regent smiled. “Eric, I think we need to meet in person and decide a strategy. This is war.”</p>
<p>Eric went to the window and watched outside focusing on nothing. Because nothing was there to see. Centuries' old oak trees, their branches convoluted and oblivious to humans' (or vampires') deeds. Not sobering nor uplifting. After a while he spoke without turning. “Niko, call Rehema and inform her, then tell Karin to come here. And Cataliades, tell him to be available around two or three in the morning, here.”</p>
<p>When Latsis left, Eric turned to her child on the screen. “Pam, still there? Board a plane and come here.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>When the regent arrived to the royal palace in New Orleans, Karin and Eric were having a heated discussion on the their network of spies and their worthlessness in this circumstance.</p>
<p>“Don’t be so harsh with them,” Karin tried to appease him. “We knew of Great Nebraska trying to find reliable allies, and we thought that she would have started with Iowa. And it would have been more productive, gaining two countries instead of one.”</p>
<p>“What we didn’t know, then, was that maybe Iowa’s husband was not thrilled at the idea,” countered Eric. “At any rate, we should have got wind of it.”</p>
<p>“Or, maybe, Iowa and Illinois have already sealed business agreements with Great Nebraska and that is enough to ensure the necessary cooperation on a political level,” Pamela added taking a seat on the large sofa that occupied the central area of her sister’s office.</p>
<p>“Another possibility is that Great Nebraska pointed directly to Missouri because he is more powerful,” remarked Latsis, “and keeps Iowa/Illinois as second best choices.”</p>
<p>“Whatever. The problem is that we didn’t know,” concluded Eric. “And that’s not acceptable.”</p>
<p>“Eric,” called Pamela crossing her legs on the coffee table. “Let’s be honest: we never paid much attention to the North.”</p>
<p>“True,” reinforced Karin.</p>
<p>“A mistake no one prevented, then.” Eric was not relenting easily.</p>
<p>“The real problem is Colorado,” pointed out the secretary. “His eventual marriage with a Brigant would unleash a series of problems. First of all, Wyoming will lose her primacy in Zeus clan as fairies will flock to Colorado’s pasture, and we need a reliable and solid ally like her; Colorado would be a cocky and difficult counterpart. Compounded with the richness that will rain on him from Faery, we won’t have much of a lever to goad him.”</p>
<p>“Colorado is not going anywhere around Alia,” stated Eric levelly.</p>
<p>“Unless,” continued Latsis, “we make a gentleman agreement with the House of Brigant, before the marriage and exploiting the friendship lady Alia shows us as her country of residence, as well as her human family’s country. I think we can get a good and viable deal and—”</p>
<p>“Niko,” called Pamela, “you’re entering a perilous path, I suggest you apply your brain to a different strategy.”</p>
<p>“Further, we have to consider that Alia chose to propose Louisiana <em>after</em> she received Colorado’s proposal,” offered Karin. “It could mean that Alia prefers to join us.”</p>
<p>“Or that she knows that she could ask much more in negotiation,” Latsis said, “as we won’t be <em>happy</em> to lose Wyoming for a very capricious alternative.”</p>
<p>“Daemon,” called again Pamela, “quicksands may be lethal.”</p>
<p>“Let him speak, Pam,” interjected a quiet Eric. “We should consider all chances, even less palatable ones.”</p>
<p>Latsis nodded, unabashed, and continued. “Coming to considering the reason a Brigant asks Louisiana to marry, beyond the fact that she may be interested in expanding her presence in here for fairy political reasons we cannot grasp at the moment, she could have chosen negotiations with Louisiana as an expedient to raise her requests with Colorado.”</p>
<p>Vampires were silent for a while.</p>
<p>Then Karin spoke, calm but cautious. “Secretary, are you aware of the circumstance that Alia was married to Eric once?”</p>
<p>The daemon stilled. When he resumed his speaking he managed to appear collected. “Before Stackhouse, I guess. I’m sorry, sir. I…”</p>
<p>“Your little daemon did not inform you?” asked Pamela.</p>
<p>“Usually, I don’t discuss work with my girlfriend, regent.”</p>
<p>“Usually a commendable habit, in this case… a mistake,” commented the vampiress.</p>
<p>“Sookie Stackhouse was the human name of Alia, many years ago,” explained Karin, “and we have reason to think that… Alia’s choice is more personal than political.”</p>
<p>“I wouldn’t exclude more mundane motivations, Karin,” interjected Eric. “So, Niko, continue your speculations and… think of what a fairy may want in my kingdom. Dangers and advantages for me. Consider a thorough cost-benefit analysis. You may go.”</p>
<p>When Eric was alone with his children, he spoke again.</p>
<p>“Did I teach you to be hasty, shallow or desultory when studying a problem and laying down your strategy?”</p>
<p>“Don’t be ridiculous, Eric,” snapped Pamela. “She let you almost drain her. She’s no danger to you.”</p>
<p>“But she’s a Brigant, now,” he countered with a hiss. “And she is a relevant player in their politics. Maybe it’s not all her doing this proposal…”</p>
<p>“What are you saying?” asked Karin.</p>
<p>“There’s political turmoil in Faery now,” he said. “I’d like her to be free in this choice, and able to discuss its terms personally. But I don’t understand her behaviour…”</p>
<p>“What don’t you understand, exactly?” quipped Pamela with a little smile.</p>
<p>Eric glared at her annoyed. “She fucks me since some time now, but keeps me away from her. When we try to speak, she yells at me and… underneath I feel a constant pain, regret from her. I don’t want to be her source of sadness or hanging on by a thread without knowing if we will be seeing again.”</p>
<p>“You’re not such a keeper according to her,” Pamela said.</p>
<p>“Did she say that?” he asked.</p>
<p>“Implicitly. You’re married and she’s not the sharing kind.” Then Pamela added, “Her exact words!”</p>
<p>“Do you think that someone is pushing, leading her somehow?” asked Karin.</p>
<p>Eric passed a hand through his hair, which was tied up in a bun with a loose lock in front, and scratched his chin. Then he sat facing Pamela and crossed his legs over the coffee table.</p>
<p>After a while, having exhausted all the stalling tics at his disposal, he said, “I don’t really know. At times she seems… herself, then she behaves in a completely different way as if she has just fled from some place and doesn’t know where she is. Then, again, she is playful and fine, next she dismisses me as a nuisance. Yes, I think there’s someone pushing her.” Eric lifted his arms and crossed them behind the head. “Looking at the whole picture, though, there’s something weird: isn’t it <em>strange</em> the timing of all these marriage proposals, and their crossed implications?”</p>
<p>“Along with the problems with weres, which are spreading everywhere?” added Karin.</p>
<p>“And the circumstance that also Faery is… politically shaking?” concluded Pamela.</p>
<p>“Mmm,” Eric nodded. “Too many things. Let’s tread carefully. Pam, you’re charged with negotiations with Alia: try to understand if she is alone or directed; and you, Karin, with Missouri, notifying him that I have a previous proposal to handle.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Alia removed her shoes and put a naked foot on the vampire’s erection.</p>
<p>He was hard and focused in the task at hand, namely being excited. The fae had to appreciate the completeness and depth of his dedication to the specific matter, and the unadulterated absence of any idea or sensation that was not linked to his dick and his intention to stick it in every part of her body. Commendable, in its way.</p>
<p>Alia compared his current frame of mind to that of other males, daemon and fairy, she had had the pleasure to entertain herself with, and had to confirm that his focusing was stronger and deeper. Maybe, she mused, it was a vampire mental characteristic, a by-product of their mind’s strength.</p>
<p>Then, she thought that perhaps it had not been such a good idea meeting Hu Ke Xu. In fact, he was pleasurable and honest, in his twisted way. And she was excited and very inclined to go down on him. Then, so she did.</p>
<p>Alia kept her mind open while licking and sucking him, but his mind was devoid of coherent thoughts and full of red flares of energy. Soon she caved in to the combined potency of his and her excitement and drank his juice. After that, the vampire got up close to her sex and savoured it, leaving nothing to be desired. Unfortunately, he applied his whole mind to the project and Alia found no meaningful cerebral activity to browse. Therefore, she let her pleasure expand and wrap her in its frenzy.</p>
<p>After almost an hour of intense exchange of orgasmic courtesies, Alia profited from the post-coital energy depletion to delve into Xu’s mind, again. They were laying down on a large sofa in the elegant sitting room of a suite at <em>Heaven’s Door,</em> in Oklahoma City. The same night of the proposal, Hu Ke Xu had sent her an expensive necklace of blue diamonds with an invitation to meet the next night, to discuss personally his proposition.</p>
<p>“I strongly disagree with your choice, Alia,” Xu murmured from under her arm, his nose inhaling deeply from her breast. “It would be just a gesture of friendship.”</p>
<p>Alia smiled and continued to play with his hair, jet black and silky. His protests were playful as he had respected her wish not to be bitten, and his thoughts, sluggish and slightly mixed up, confirmed his flirtatious mood. She did not dare to go deeper into his mind folds, and carried on a lighthearted conversation.</p>
<p>“You didn’t convince me, vampire.”</p>
<p>“Mmm, you fairies are too stingy with your blood.” His fingers were drawing circles on her belly. “I had another fairy, long ago, and neither he gave me a drop of his blood.”</p>
<p>“Maybe, because you vampires tend to… exaggerate with our blood?”</p>
<p>“I was told that now Northman reeks of you,” he whispered between her breasts. “Maybe <em>he</em> exaggerates.”</p>
<p>Alia hit his head with a hand, sifting through his thoughts flowing in front of her. “It’s not your business, snoopy.”</p>
<p>“And I smell his blood in you.”</p>
<p>“I hate your vampire noses, you know?” she continued to listen to his thoughts, untangling them.</p>
<p>“Won’t he be upset with you for this… little chat we had?”</p>
<p>“I don’t think he’s interested,” Alia said. “Tell him and then let me know.” She felt his curiosity, but his mind was following another line of reasoning: he knew Missouri had proposed to Louisiana, and had known of it well before the formal communication. His attitude toward Eric, and several other rulers, was ambivalent and opportunistic, but he did not want to overtly displease any kingdom. He preferred to move at the back, among grey areas and through third parties. Deceivingly. Deviously.</p>
<p>“No need, sweet fae.” He breathed on her belly, licking her navel and introducing two fingers inside her. “But as you don’t let me drink, I think I’ll taste another serving of you. Would you give me another slice of…?”</p>
<p>Alia smiled. Until that moment Xu had let his lust drive him, now he wanted to seduce her. She tried to consider her stance, but discarded any proper reflection before unfolding them. She turned and lifted her bum, rubbing it on his face.</p>
<p>“Mmm.” He licked and bit her cheeks. “Lovely choice and, just to let you know, if you marry me I’ll enforce full vampire tradition.” He stretched a hand to reach a small jar of lube and slid a finger in her tight orifice. </p>
<p>“And that would be…” She felt his erection down her leg and his mounting excitement in his feelings. As before, his words matched his thoughts and she could not help to appreciate his coherence. He wanted to marry her to expand his business with Faery and so had told her. He would have fully disclosed his patrimonial and economical assets, and his political goals: his feelings and thoughts were along that line.</p>
<p>“Your body will be mine and mine alone, your blood sacred to me.” He breathed on her ear, while his other hand cupped her sex.</p>
<p>“What about yours?” She rocked between his hands holding his head close to hers. “Will it be mine and only mine?”</p>
<p>“Sure,” he whispered entering her. Slowly. “I won’t touch another vampire, fairy or were for the entire duration of the marriage, neither I’ll give my blood. It would be yours.”</p>
<p>Alia was not in a position to be completely present to herself, but his words were candid and his mind did not show crevices or dark corners.</p>
<p>“Mmm, interesting. What about daemons… humans… whatever else is out there.”</p>
<p>He moved slowly inside her and took a few minutes to form a true thought in his excitement, then breathed in her ear, “Daemons are good for law and that’s it. I’d rather use my hands or a hole in the wall than bedding one.” His movements became deeper and more powerful. “Now quiet, fae. I want to taste your delicious rear without distractions.”</p>
<p>Actually, his thorough dedication sent waves of pleasure to her body, while Alia’s mind experienced his thrill. For the third time that night she came, his climax adding to her own and leaving her exhaust.</p>
<p>Before leaving the vampire’s room, Alia asked, “What about humans?”</p>
<p>“What?” Xu had just handed her a glass of water.</p>
<p>“Would you touch humans?”</p>
<p>“What a question! Sure.” Xu drank his blood. “I have to feed when you’re not with me, but rest assured that I’ll drink only from you when you’re available… even now, if you agree.”</p>
<p>She ignored him. “And when you feed, you always fuck, right?”</p>
<p>“Mostly, if I use a living source.”</p>
<p>“Therefore your body won’t be only mine,” Alia concluded.</p>
<p>The vampire shook his head. “Humans don’t count.”</p>
<p>“Ah, they’re not included in vampire tradition?”</p>
<p>Xu watched the fae cocking his head. “Would you require feeding without fucking?”</p>
<p>“Mmm,” Alia smiled flirtatious. “Don’t worry. You haven’t convinced me of the opportunity to marry you… and I have to consider other possibilities.”</p>
<p>“I know,” said Xu flatly. “But Aengus would keep you in Faery. I would never limit your freedom.”</p>
<p>Alia saw the image of his cousin in his mind before hearing his words, and felt a grip in her guts.</p>
<p>“While Northman won’t give up Alabama, and I know they’re very close… how would you fare with another wife?” The vampire watched her closely, then added, “By the way, I was surprised to notice that you two didn’t hide…”</p>
<p>Alia lifted a brow and stared at him, impassible.</p>
<p>“You’re playing on many tables,” Xu put an arm around her waist and pulled her close. “And I like it… I may not be the best choice, but maybe I’m the one who leaves you with most options. Think about me, fae.”</p>
<p>Alia left his suite with more confused ideas than those she came with.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p>
  
</p>
<p>Only when she closed her room’s door behind her, Alia allowed herself to inhale a long, deep breath. And to let loose the state of acute agitation she was trying to dampen since some time now.</p>
<p>From the time when Eric had refused her blood and she had to force it on him, or when he had left in a hurry without much of an explanation. When he had come again to discuss the weres’ problem. When they had had sex without speaking. There were a lot of whens, she could not pick up the most relevant or the one that had spurred the constant turmoil she felt inside. Probably it all had started the first time she had met Eric again, even if it had been mingled with so many feelings she had not understood much at that time.</p>
<p>And now? She recognised that she was not in a better spot to understand what was gnawing at her. Single thoughts came up and faded again in the grim landscape of the mental disturbance that was her mind’s regular state.</p>
<p>Inhaling, exhaling.</p>
<p>She sat straightening her back and used her daily mental exercise to squelch her inner turbulence. Not very successfully, in truth.</p>
<p>Fucking vampires and their continual scheming. Yesterday, the crossed marriage proposals had stirred something, and she was afraid. And then, at the back of her head, the little image of Eric feeding from donors she conjured upall the time, without respite. It was something Pamela had let slip inadvertently (or not?) a couple of months earlier: Eric fed mostly by living sources. And Alia knew all very well what happened during feeding. </p>
<p>All of a sudden another vision filled her mind, that of Eric feeding from a she-were in her bedroom at his house in Shreveport, while Felipe and his companions were partying downstairs. Thrashing furnitures. A wooden coffee table. They were together at that time and he had not resisted his thirst. She felt a stabbing pain in her chest.</p>
<p>Unwanted tears streamed down her cheeks. She cursed them but did nothing to stop or wipe them. Maybe, they could wash her pain.</p>
<p>After some time, when tears had dried and her pain had changed into a dull weight in her guts, Alia had a long, hot shower. She wondered why she had decided to have sex with Hu Ke Xu, given that it would not have been necessary for reading his mind. She had no answer. At least, not a good one. One that she could use to soothe her pain or understand it.</p>
<p>She went to bed bitter and tired. But, most of all, she went alone.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0037"><h2>37. Chapter 37</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Pamela Ravenscroft was annoyed. Probably, the correct term would have been angry, or directly pissed off. And doing nothing to mask it. Alia had understood and ignored it all the same.</p>
<p>The regent had called Alia the night after the marriage proposal had been handed out, and she had not answer her call. The day after she had halted any possible request saying she had a tight working schedule out of town for two more days. The third night Alia was understandably tired and proposed to meet tonight. For someone who had just proposed a king, she did not seem very interested in opening negotiations, and hence Pamela’s limited patience showed its limits.</p>
<p>When Alia arrived at Pamela’s office in Shreveport, after a not very uplifting dinner with her brother’s family, the vampiress was drinking a glass of blood. And sulking.</p>
<p>Pamela scanned her clothing with a critical eye: a light tight jacket over loose trousers, high-heeled sandals and a high leather belt to emphasise her waist. All black. A lace brassiere, dark grey, peeping from the jacket’s deep neckline.</p>
<p>“Mmm, fae.” The vampiress watched Alia, amazed or annoyed. Alia could not say. “Who do you have to kill, tonight?”</p>
<p>Alia smiled and swirled to show her attire. “I was told it’s from Brandon Maxwell fall collection 2019.”</p>
<p>“Vintage classic,” Pam nodded, “it suits you greatly, Alia. It’s a pity my maker is not here.”</p>
<p>“I have an appointment, later on.”</p>
<p>The vampiress frowned. “A date?”</p>
<p>“An appointment, it’s… business.”</p>
<p>“Can I join in? I’ll be your secretary: you’ll be much more impressive with an assistant.” The vampiress purred excited.</p>
<p>“Pam, it’s serious.” After she added, “It’s a fae thing.”</p>
<p>“Ugh!” shrugged Pamela. “Let’s see your proposal, then.”</p>
<p>“It’s a standard vampire contract, just minor changes,” said the fae sitting down on the sofa.</p>
<p>“But you two are not standard,” remarked Pamela, “I never heard of a vampire/fairy marriage before.”</p>
<p>“And maybe there won’t be any, Pam,” the fae said hesitantly. “I don’t know what Eric thinks about it and how talks may turn out.”</p>
<p>“About that, fae… why didn’t you speak to Eric first?”</p>
<p>“Mmm,” Alia bit her bottom lip and cocked the head. “It’s something Eric said once, perhaps more than once…”</p>
<p>The regent waved a hand as to invite a further explanation.</p>
<p>“Nothing, Pam,” the fae whispered. “It’s that Eric… wanted something from me… like something to understand what… ugh, maybe the situation is all wrong. Alabama came to me, some ten days ago, or more.”</p>
<p>“I know,” Pamela nodded once. “Was it enlightening?”</p>
<p>“I don’t know. Confusing, I’d say. More innuendos than straight talks; I don’t know if I got everything right,” complained Alia. “Is it possible that she suggested the marriage? Would she accept it? And, to be true, I proposed it but I’m not sure to… oh, fuck, Pam. The number three is not compelling, that’s it.”</p>
<p>Pamela slid out of her shoes and folded her legs at her side, on the armchair facing the sofa. She took her time smoothing her skirt and pulling sleeves, lifting the neck of her shirt.</p>
<p>“Don’t think that I don’t understand you,” said the vampiress. “I was born in Victorian England era and my education… was just a series of limitations. However, my life as a vampire brought me a freedom I never imagined could exist, at least not for a woman. With that freedom I lost all limitations, probably even those of good taste sometimes.” The vampiress laughed without humour. “What I mean is that labels and social conventions disappear, and what remains are feelings, desires, goals, achievements in their raw form. What you see in young vampires is lack of discipline, given by the power we acquire at turning. What you see in old vampires is the sublimation of those same instances into true meaning.”</p>
<p>“All this to say that numbers are not important?” the fae asked.</p>
<p>“More or less. If you… want Eric, Rehema is not a problem but a resource, believe me.” The vampiress narrowed her eyes and focused on her friend. “You haven’t yet said why you proposed without first speaking to Eric… he was surprised and… suspicious about your motives.”</p>
<p>“Suspicious?” Alia repeated. “What does he suspect? I… I… just wanted to show him that it was not true that I despised him and vampire tradition and everything related to our… past marriage. And, yes, I wanted to surprise him, but hopefully in a positive way.” Alia paused. “It’s been a snap decision, maybe. I didn’t… didn’t consider all the implications and… I don’t know. Maybe it’s been a mistake. Was it a mistake, Pam?”</p>
<p>“I don’t think so. It was just about time that one of the two made a step forward,” said Pamela sighing. “And Eric was unusually buying time. Or was afraid to make a move…”</p>
<p>“Or didn’t want to make any. Maybe I misunderstood what…”</p>
<p>“No, Soo— Alia,” the vampiress said forcefully. “It’s time you two decide what to do. Any which way you choose will be better than this stalemate.”</p>
<p>“And… whom will Eric choose? Missouri could be a good addition to your entente here in the south…”</p>
<p>Pamela smiled a little smile and said, “That king is an enigma and… were not for you, I think Eric and Rehema would consider it, but I’m not sure of the outcome. Karin has been charged to contact Missouri and find out what’s behind the offer.”</p>
<p>Alia swallowed hard.</p>
<p>“And I’ve been charged to open negotiations with you, fae,” the vampiress added after a while. “So, let’s start. The agreement is lacking in many fundamental ways.”</p>
<p>“It’s a draft, obviously.”</p>
<p>“What is the political goal you intend to reach?”</p>
<p>“Pam, what the heck are you saying? I’ve got no political aims,” snapped Alia. “I haven’t informed my family yet. I told you it’s been a decision in the moment…”</p>
<p>“It will have political repercussions, though.”</p>
<p>“Mmm, you mean Wyoming?”</p>
<p>“Yes,” confirmed Pamela. “And Colorado. Maybe some light problems even among allies.”</p>
<p>“I’ve already spoken to Hu Ke Xu. He knows I’ve got other… choices and I didn’t give him many hopes.”</p>
<p>Pamela watched her friend and weighted her words.</p>
<p>Alia kept her eyes on the vampiress and wore her most unconcerned face. After all it was the fourth day after her meeting with Xu: she had thrown up, moved her bowels a few times, made a douche and showered several times. To be on the safe side, that evening she had even let some of her smell slip away.</p>
<p>“And what other choices he knew of…?”</p>
<p>“He was just guessing, I think. He mentioned Eric and my cousin,” said the fae.</p>
<p>“Your… cousin?”</p>
<p>“Aengus,” explained Alia. If Colorado knew of her dalliance, probably others knew too. “I don’t know, though, why he thought that. Aengus and I did have sex for some time, but never talked of… other.”</p>
<p>“I think it would be better to check with your family and see what a marriage with a vampire will entail for you, the kingdom and our relationship with Faery,” said Pamela after a while.</p>
<p>“No one will question my choice. At any rate, I will speak to Niall and Dillon, when we agree on general terms, that’s it,” the fae confirmed. “We’ll find the kind of alliance that benefits both parties.”</p>
<p>“Good,” stated Pamela. “Economical and patrimonial assets. There should be complete disclosure.”</p>
<p>“Desmond manages my estate, I’ll ask him to send you everything. And you may send to him your data.”</p>
<p>“I read that you offer your… skills in exclusive use for Louisiana,” Pamela smiled.</p>
<p>“Obvious, for Louisiana and his allies, if advisable.”</p>
<p>“You haven’t said what you want, beyond the usual requests of protection, support, etc. You could ask to be queen, for instance.”</p>
<p>“I thought there was already one,” said the fae setting her jaws tight.</p>
<p>“Rehema is queen of Alabama, not of Great Louisiana. If you become queen, in case of Eric’s untimely death, you’ll be the ruler here and Rehema will be your wife, but not co-ruler,” the vampiress explained.</p>
<p>Alia shook her head. “This is Eric’s, I don’t want anything.”</p>
<p>“Mmm, but a title has to be declared,” Pamela thought aloud, “we will think of something.”</p>
<p>“I don’t care.”</p>
<p>“You should, fae. The title is not something to play with, but a statement of power. Rehema, for instance, is a consort without any say in Louisiana’s ruling. They have a lot of businesses together, but they signed them as two different monarchs.”</p>
<p>“And this means that…?”</p>
<p>“Eric reserved the right to name an heir, therefore Rehema could claim the kingdom only in absence of that heir,” explained the vampiress. “But if you become queen, you’ll be automatically the designated heir.”</p>
<p>“So, she should kill both to gain another country, is that your point?”</p>
<p>“When did you become so cynical? Is it a quality given with fairyness?” quipped the vampiress. “Yes, but it will be also harder, and Eric or you could also designate an heir, to decrease chances of realisation of a similar project.”</p>
<p>“Then, would-be usurpers should invade and conquer the place.”</p>
<p>“Yes.”</p>
<p>“Comforting. Can we discuss this point afterward? I think Dillon and Niall will help me to understand better my… interests.”</p>
<p>“Sure. Let’s come to duration. You proposed standard time, a hundred years.” Pamela read her notes, and said, “But Louisiana prefers to double that amount.”</p>
<p>“Why?” the fae asked after some time. “A century seems already a… an incredible amount of time. I mean, a ridiculous long time, I don’t know if I will be alive, it’s…”</p>
<p>“Years go by very quickly, fae,” the vampiress smiled, “you will notice in a few decades. The reason? To offer an image of stability and strength… and to give my maker a long period of… relaxation.”</p>
<p>“Pam, things can get sour after a few decades. Or, most likely, we’ll divorce in a couple of years…”</p>
<p>“Two hundred years,” repeated Pamela.</p>
<p>“It’s… ridiculous,” Alia remarked, then added, “All right.”</p>
<p>Pamela ticked a box of her list and carried on. “Vampire traditions are very important, fae. And you did not specify anything on the matter. Yet, this union is peculiar and the need for new and more precise specifications is evident.”</p>
<p>Alia nodded, and waited.</p>
<p>“My maker requires a bond, to be finalised on the night of the marriage. The first exchange at the signing of the pre-nuptial agreement, the second in two weeks time.” Pamela watched the fae waiting for her answer.</p>
<p>“Pam,” started Alia giggling. “I really don’t understand why Eric asks Cataliades services if he has yours…”</p>
<p>“Just to your knowledge, I’ve got a master in law. It was some time ago, true,” retorted Pamela, “but my memory is—”</p>
<p>“I agree,” interjected Alia.</p>
<p>“If you broke the bond,” added the vampiress, “the marriage would be declared null and void.”</p>
<p>Alia blushed and clenched her fists. “It’s not necessary to be so… unpleasant. It won’t happen.”</p>
<p>“Just to let you know, Alia,” continued Pamela unfazed, “Amelia Broadway was killed because of that.”</p>
<p>Alia blanched and stared at her friend.</p>
<p>“It happened almost a year after you left,” explained Pamela, “and it was not Eric’s doing: he was prisoner in Oklahoma and had other things to think about. There was no investigation as Nevada’s regent didn’t deem it important to discover who was behind it. But, let’s say that rumours were that the reason was that.”</p>
<p>The fae stood still, the vampiress’ words hitting her as stones rolling down a hill. Alia had not heard of Amelia since well before leaving for Faery, their friendship ruined and tattered after so many interferences and disagreements. Yet, hearing that her death could have been caused by the bond breaking she had asked her to perform made her feel guilt.</p>
<p>“I knew of it after more than a year,” continued Pamela. “It happened in New Orleans and I was sheriff of Area Five back then. Sorry, I see you didn’t know…”</p>
<p>“No, I didn’t… we had drifted apart since before leaving… but I knew she was dead.”</p>
<p>“The bond is sacred to us, Alia. It’s at the core of our relationship, between maker and child,” said Pamela flatly. “And when it’s chosen between partners is even more revered.”</p>
<p>“Pam, I’ve already explained to Eric, I… was afraid to be influenced by the bond, by him. I won’t make twice the same mistake.”</p>
<p>“Hope so, fae,” concluded Pamela. “I’d suggest also a blood exchange per year, on the anniversary of the marriage.”</p>
<p>The fae nodded.</p>
<p>“And, now the body issue,” declared the vampiress.</p>
<p>Alia frowned. “Is there a… body issue?”</p>
<p>“Sex and blood, in other terms,” explained Pamela.</p>
<p>“I don’t need to be told when having sex,” Alia remarked curtly.</p>
<p>“Let’s face it from another side,” offered the vampire. “This is a contract that has to last decades: we have to build the foundation of your agreement and insert the requirements at its base. Afterward, you can add to it, but not subtract from it.”</p>
<p>Alia nodded to invite the vampiress to expand her discourse.</p>
<p>“It’s better to face it along with the feeding issue. As you’re not vampire and can feed Eric, it’s necessary to provide a—”</p>
<p>“Pamela!” snapped Alia annoyed. “Now, you’re exaggerating. It’s not necessary to write down anything about that.”</p>
<p>“I don’t agree. It’s a commitment that has to be included in the contract. Would you accept that he feeds… elsewhere?”</p>
<p>“Sure. When we are not together -and it can happen, obviously- he can feed with fresh blood bags.”</p>
<p>Pamela watched her friend, then said, “It’s… decades that Eric feeds mainly from… live sources. I remember you did not agree with this… procedure.”</p>
<p>Alia stiffened and nodded. “Let’s include a clause of exclusive feeding and, in case of my unavailability, the possibility to use fresh blood bags.” </p>
<p>“Good. For the sex part I’d say that it follows the feeding schedule.”</p>
<p>“Eric doesn’t need to feed every time,” observed Alia.</p>
<p>“Good,” smiled Pamela, “you plan to have a lot of sex, I guess.”</p>
<p>Alia shrugged.</p>
<p>“Your body, all of it, will be Eric’s and you cannot be touched by anyone without Eric’s consent.”</p>
<p>“Does he reciprocate?” asked Alia smiling. “You know, two hundred years is… a very long time…”</p>
<p>“Mmm,” the vampiress thought for a while. “You two have to discuss this point, I think.”</p>
<p>“Let’s say that we will,” concluded the fae. “I think that, for today, is enough.”</p>
<p>“Mmm, yes,” the vampiress stood up. “Are you sure I can’t come with you to your… appointment?”</p>
<p>“Positively sure, Pam.” Alia smiled. “A den of fairies would not be healthy for you! But we can meet tomorrow night for some training, if you’re still in town.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It had been a long time since Alia had seen Preston Pardloe. Three years and a half of subjective time. Now, though, it was another dimension and another time. The time variable, indeed, was the most relevant. It was the year 2058, but the distance she had walked (and, sometimes, ran) in the meanwhile was greater and deeper than a number could encompass.</p>
<p>She entered the club fearing what she could find, but ready to face it. Or, at least, Alia thought so. Her mind was partially open and listening, knowing that a lot of fairies were there. She spotted Preston immediately and strode toward his table in a straight line.</p>
<p>Her personal rule was not to read her friends, lovers or ex-lovers, casual encounters. But it was some time she felt vaguely unsettled and worried (of nothing specific, but tense nonetheless). Life attempts usually did not relax people, she explained to herself, neither did difficulties in communication with ex-lovers and ex-husbands. Therefore she gently touched Preston’s mind as they embraced and reacquainted themselves the way friends did after a long time of silence.</p>
<p>When she was satisfied, she sat back on the sofa and smiled at her friend. “It’s good to see you, Preston.”</p>
<p>“Likewise, Alia.” His hair was still ruffled by her hands’ greeting and his warm tawny eyes smiled matching his thoughts. “How are you faring on Earth?”</p>
<p>She hesitated. “Mmm, well and less well, I guess.”</p>
<p>“I heard that you’re making a name among vampires,” prodded the fairy.</p>
<p>She hit him on the chest. “I already had a name, you cheeky boy.”</p>
<p>He grinned childishly. “But you have some upgrading, now.”</p>
<p>Alia glanced at him questioningly, and he explained that at this time she was able to read fairies and daemons, beyond humans and weres. Alia pointed out that she never divulged anything about her skills and asked him to be discreet. They talked at length about their lives and their plans for the future. Alia was cautious and confided only her concern for the future.</p>
<p>“Things are fluid and unpredictable as of now,” said Alia, “not exactly the best situation to make long term plans or to take important decisions.”</p>
<p>“Things are the same in Faery, I don’t know if it’s a sign of the times or… a mere coincidence…”</p>
<p>Alia felt his reluctance to speak mixed with the desire to warn her, and delved into his mind, deeper. Preston, though, was a messenger and a soldier, not informed about strategies and goals: his worries were general and well meant, but not substantial.</p>
<p>Alia decided to take her chances. “Now that you say so, I worry for my friends in Faery. Do you thing there could be… problems for them?”</p>
<p>“I don’t know, Alia. If you want, I can contact some of them…”</p>
<p>This last part was a thought she had pushed in the forefront of his attention, without much effort given his natural willingness. Alia was not sure about what to communicate, but she thought that the source from where the contact would come should raise enough questions to convey her true message. Usually, in fact, she got across Faery through Cataliades’ contacts, namely official connections. Now she hoped not to be taking a wrong step. Or worse.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0038"><h2>38. Chapter 38</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>The future cannot be predicted, but futures can be invented.</p>
<p>(<em>Gábor Dénes</em>,</p>
<p>Hungarian-British physicist, 1971 Nobel Prize in Physics)</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Why do you want to marry me?”</p>
<p>Eric had flown to Alia’s house shortly after she had called him to arrange an appointment for the following night. He found her in a pensive mood, surprised to see him. Diantha left right after, and now they were alone.</p>
<p>“For the same reason I never wanted to divorce you in the first place,” said Alia flatly. “And, honestly, I hoped you had no doubts on that. What the heck of a question…”</p>
<p>“Sure, I feel what your blood says… it’s confusing, though, and I also see the way you behave,” he remarked. Eric sat on the sofa and watched her with a dissecting stare. “And your recriminations don’t help to shed light.”</p>
<p>Alia sat at his side, her long robe letting out only her bare feet. “I’m confused, but not about the fact of… loving you, wanting you. It’s all about the opportunity to be with you. The situation is not favourable, you know.”</p>
<p>The vampire frowned.</p>
<p>“Oh, Eric, don’t play with me,” she complained. “The fact that you’re married it’s not of minor importance to me, and you’re being king either.”</p>
<p>“Rehema and I are friends, just friends. I’ve already told you and she—”</p>
<p>“She told me too,” Alia snapped, “and if you want to know, I don’t even like the idea of being the second wife. It looks so sexist and demeaning.”</p>
<p>“I don’t see it this way, given that we could marry even if you were male. It’s not a sexist thing,” Eric said carefully. “But, maybe, your cousin wouldn’t approve of it?”</p>
<p>“What does he have to do with it?” she asked, sharply.</p>
<p>“You tell me,” he said. “It seems that Aengus had different plans.”</p>
<p>She scowled and replied curtly, “Nothing I was, <em>I am</em>, aware of.”</p>
<p>Eric leant on the backrest and set his right ankle on the left knee. Observing her till she flounced in her seat. “Mmm, so unexpected, then?”</p>
<p>“We’ve fucked for some time, that’s all… it was an on-off… thing,” said Alia unwillingly. “Nothing serious and nothing I wished to… formalise in any way.”</p>
<p>“It’s not what I heard,” murmured the vampire.</p>
<p>“And since when do you listen to rumours instead of asking me? If I’m not wrong it’s always been one of your remarks. That I listened to my friends without asking you.”</p>
<p>“You’re not easy to handle, Alia,” Eric started after a pause, “and I’m tired. I don’t want to… push you to do anything.” Another pause. “I’d really like to know what you want. That’s all.”</p>
<p>“Neither are you, Eric. Easy to handle, I mean,” the fae said. “What do I want? Just to see if it’s possible for us to stay together. To try, at least. Maybe it won’t last, but I’d rather to explore our possibilities than not. You were right: we never really tried. At the end, whatever the end, we will have tried everything and there won’t be anything unsaid, untried, unwanted.”</p>
<p>The vampire got closer and kissed her. It was a light, sweet kiss, so unlike him. She smelled of burning caramel, with a pinch of chili pepper. He lingered some time in the hollow of her throat, inhaling, then budged back.</p>
<p>“Am I wrong or is it real this undercurrent of uneasiness and defeat, like you first don’t believe that we can be together or that we won’t last long?”</p>
<p>“Yes. And no.” She looked at him sideways. “I haven’t appreciated that you sent Pam to <em>negotiate</em>. I thought you just wanted to beat around the bush and… it made me sad and—”</p>
<p>“I want you. Full stop,” Eric said.</p>
<p>“… and I don’t know what the future will be for us, but I know I have enough of dredging stuff up from the past, I’d like to live this present… with you, possibly.”</p>
<p>“So do I,” he confirmed smiling. His eyes, though, were not friendly. Then added, “But a confused lover is not what I want.”</p>
<p>Alia clenched her hands. “I’m not that… confused.”</p>
<p>Eric steepled the hands over his chin without moving his eyes from her. He wore a blue suit with a deconstructed jacket, the shirt’s cuffs protruding a few centimetres from the sleeves to show silver cufflinks. His formal attire had been a casual choice, as he had not bothered to change after a business meeting, but now he appreciated its effect on the fae.</p>
<p>“I’m not confused about you,” she repeated after a while.</p>
<p>“Why do you want to marry me?” He rested a hand over a knee and the other on the backrest.</p>
<p>“I love you.” Her voice was firm. But lacked strength, he thought.</p>
<p>The vampire stared at her.</p>
<p>“Eric, what do you want from me?” she asked after a while, almost whining.</p>
<p>“Many things, fae.”</p>
<p>“Uh?”</p>
<p>“Nothing to be asked directly, though,” he said. “Let’s try again. Why do you want to marry me?”</p>
<p>Alia blushed and sprang on her feet turning toward him, like a cat surprised from behind, its fangs bared and claws unsheathed. He long hair waved back, and her loose dress swirled around her like a chained breeze, outlining her body and the tension it exuded.</p>
<p>“What play is this? I want you and nothing more,” she yelled to his face. Shivering.</p>
<p>“Very well, fae,” said Eric. “That’s a start.”</p>
<p>“What do you mean?” She was still standing in front of him, hands fisted at her sides. A vague sweet scent whiffing off from her. Eric’s smirk seemed to irritate her, so he showed his teeth.</p>
<p>“Haven’t you had enough of playing with me?” he asked, dismissively.</p>
<p>“What do you mean?” she repeated, shrugging off a sense of uneasiness.</p>
<p>“Well, I had enough.”</p>
<p>Alia unclenched her hands and smoothed the dress with open palms. “I never played with you. I— I—”</p>
<p>“You,” he said standing up and closing the short distance between them. She was not small, nor looked brittle. Yet, more than twenty centimetres and almost forty kilos of difference amounted to a certain physical pressure, and he discharged it in full on her.</p>
<p>“Are you trying to intimidate me?” voiced Alia, unable to step back as a low coffee table pressed on her calves.</p>
<p>“Am I?”</p>
<p>“Well, certainly I cannot think properly if you hover over me like that.”</p>
<p>“No thinking is required on your part, indeed.”</p>
<p>Alia shifted her weight from a foot to another. “What do you want, Eric?”</p>
<p>“Your full attention, to start,” he said, slowly. And passed a finger over her cheek, her jaw and down to the throat and the collarbone. She quivered as his forefinger descended lower and lower and, at the end, rested on her nipple. The light fabric of her dress was smooth and soft under his touch. He closed his eyes and let the now spicier fragrance she oozed fill his lungs. She was so close, yet her unyielding attitude did not leave much room to him, to them. He feared he had to let her go.</p>
<p>“You have that.”</p>
<p>He shook his head gently. “Your full attention, fae.” His voice, though, was not gentle, and Alia’s frame jolted under its cold vibrations.</p>
<p>“Your full attention on me,” he repeated on her ear. Huskily.</p>
<p>Alia staggered and lifted her gaze to his face, now lingering over hers. Eric felt her turmoil finally placating, but it was not necessary to focus on the blood to know it. The lines on her forefront had relaxed, and her mouth had lost the tight pouting of a brat.</p>
<p>“You have it,” she repeated. And this time she meant thorough what Eric had asked.</p>
<p>He nodded. “No more little games, then. If you’re here, you play with me.”</p>
<p>His hand had left her breast and was now lingering on her hip, light as a shadow. He did not bother to wait for an answer.</p>
<p>“If you’re uncertain or have second thoughts, leave now. I don’t need half a lover or an ambivalent one.”</p>
<p>She goggled at him and tried to step back, hitting the table and almost tumbling over it if not for Eric holding her back.</p>
<p>“I’m certain,” she said with a breath of rage.</p>
<p>“And you need to be, fae.” He pulled her closer. “Because I’m known as an overbearing, possessive and vindictive vampire.”</p>
<p>“You don’t scare me, Eric.” She straightened up and squared her shoulders. “And I’m stubborn enough to defend my turf.”</p>
<p>He smiled wickedly. “I won’t cut you any slack, this time. You are fairy and understand our rules. Hope these past months have not deceived you.”</p>
<p>“What do you mean?”</p>
<p>“If you break a rule, you’ll pay the full price, Alia.”</p>
<p>She lifted a brow, defiantly.</p>
<p>“I understand that some times you won’t be able to tell me something,” he continued in a husky voice. “But if you tell me something, you’d better tell the truth. I know that fairies can lie with the most candid face, but you wouldn’t fool me for long.”</p>
<p>“Have no reason to lie to you. You better apply that to yourself, though.”</p>
<p>“I’ve never lied to you, lover,” he said brushing her forehead with his lips. “My only sin is to want you more than anything else.”</p>
<p>“Then, we’re two.” </p>
<p>He smiled again, lifting her up and crushing her body to his. ““If I ever regret this, I’ll make sure you’ll regret it too.”</p>
<p>She wrapped herself around him, crossing her ankles on his back and setting her nose against his. Then, she said, “Deal.”</p>
<p>Eric drew up the fragrance of her arousal and let himself plunge in that dangerous world. As the excitement that precedes a fight rolls through veins and muscles, along with the certainty of death and the firm intent to defy it, now his excitement swirled into every nick of his body giving him the certitude of the believer. Because he believed that fae had been born to test his strength and prove his endurance. And he knew it was just the way it had to be.</p>
<p>He bit her without grace. He wanted to hurt her. Not much, though. She had just to understand where she was heading into. And be advised as to what could come to her.</p>
<p>She tensed in his arms, then rocked gently. Asking for more.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Cross Lake was another lake where the Ancient One owned a house.</p>
<p>Cataliades wondered what was the fascination with lakes for the old vampiress. At the beginning he had thought it was the fact that they were isolated locations, hard to reach and inhospitable for sound beings. But there were many places that had those same qualifications. Then he thought again and concluded it was the air. The air was laced with water and it was hard to tell one from the other. The constant dampness in the air, in fact, was an unavoidable, and most apt specification of lakeside sites. It must be it.</p>
<p>The daemon sat comfortably, as long as the wetness was confined outside the cabin, in the hydrofoil gliding over the west end of the lake. Sparse lights confirmed that the area, after repeated floods (and major damages to the urban sites around the lake), was avoided by the population at large, although the daemon did not think that the latter included many sound beings to start with.</p>
<p>The time worn vampiress had sent for him and he obliged her.</p>
<p>The craft entered a bayou and Cataliades lost any sense of direction in the following ten minutes. Dusk was falling rapidly and shadows replaced trees and riverbanks. The daemon lawyer thought about the vampiress’ dislike for a certain kind of technology, given that she preferred to meet personally instead of using modern means of communication, but then she had a predilection for residences which involved a great deal of advanced industrial and scientific knowledge. He expected another submarine dwelling surging from those dark waters infested by alligators and water snakes.</p>
<p>Shortly after, the hydrofoil hooked up to an old pier which appeared down an inlet, partly masked by towering bald cypress trees. An eerie silence warped him as the pilot cut the craft’s engine, more frightening for its unnatural quality than for the actual extension of it. In fact, the absence of sound was restricted to that specific mooring area, and followed him as he got off the boat and walked the jetty behind one of the Pythoness’ handmaids.</p>
<p>After a few metres he thought to have glimpsed something ahead of him, but the feeling was misleading, as a closer look showed just more vegetation. Then, in the middle of that greenery, a few steps and a door in polished dark wood appeared in front of him.</p>
<p>He was welcomed into a cool and dry interior, a hallway with a layer of aged richness: floors and most walls were in dark woods, covered with plush rugs and old paintings. The maid introduced him to a sitting room whose walls were enveloped by old books and scrolls: a large fireplace lighting only part of the place, and two old armchairs flanking the mantelpiece silently invited to sit down. Cataliades sat and waited, fascinated by the crackling fire.</p>
<p>Some time passed by. The daemon must have dozed off part of it because he did not notice when the ancient female occupied the armchair in front of him.</p>
<p>“My favourite agent of destiny,” the vampiress’ coarse voice filled the daemon’s ears as unsettling as a screech from a caged animal.</p>
<p>Cataliades startled and opened his eyes at once, just to see the seer sitting quietly in front of the fireplace. She held his gaze with a blank face that, in her case, was a wrinkled assembly of organs.</p>
<p>“Pythoness,” he said bowing his head without standing.</p>
<p>She turned her foggy eyes to the fire and went in downtime. Or so it seemed to the daemon who relaxed his hands over the prominent belly and set up to wait.</p>
<p>“I think I will stay in Louisiana for some time, now,” said the sybil presently.</p>
<p>Cataliades nodded once. The silence which had accompanied him since his arrival was still there, and he wondered if it was the result of a powerful noise reduction device or if the vampiress silenced all life around with her mere presence.</p>
<p>“I heard weres are restless and… annoying, recently.”</p>
<p>It was a statement, the daemon decided.</p>
<p>“Tell the king to investigate deeper into BSA and Home Office’s local branch,” she added. “His telepath can be of help, too.”</p>
<p>“I shall pass on your… suggestion, Pythia,” he confirmed. “Or should I hide the advice’s source?”</p>
<p>The flame lights danced on her face hardening its edges. “Let him know that I… think about him.”</p>
<p>Cataliades acknowledged silently.</p>
<p>After some time the vampiress turned her face to him and showed her teeth. Cataliades stilled, then reassured himself: it was her version of a smile. “Do I amuse you, Ancient One?”</p>
<p>“Don’t flatter yourself, daemon.”</p>
<p>“Then,” continued he jovially, “something makes you… happy?”</p>
<p>As soon as the daemon had uttered those words he felt their inadequacy. The old lady had never been <em>happy</em> in her whole life, presumably.</p>
<p>“It’s just for your benefit, daemon, so you don’t etch my armchair with your claws,” she rasped showing more teeth.</p>
<p>Cataliades felt suddenly conscious of the way his hands were holding the chair’s armrests, and forced himself to relax. “Glad to be the object of your mockery, Pythoness.”</p>
<p>“Cataliades,” her voice actually sounded light, “you should know me by now. At least, know that I don’t eat daemons.”</p>
<p>“It’s reassuring to hear that aloud.”</p>
<p>“Tell me about your goddaughter,” the Pythia asked shortly after.</p>
<p>The lawyer sighed and straightened. “She proposed to Northman, last week.”</p>
<p>She nodded, but seemed unaffected by the news.</p>
<p>“They started negotiations,” he added.</p>
<p>Before long she averted her eyes from the fire and stared at him, making the daemon wiggle uneasily on his seat. “Desmond, tell me what I don’t know.”</p>
<p>“Surely you know more than me, seer,” said Cataliades awkwardly, “it seems I am the only one really surprised by this turn of events.”</p>
<p>“I am… moderately satisfied that a course of action has been chosen.”</p>
<p>“Moderately?” asked Cataliades dazed. “I thought this was exactly what you aimed for.”</p>
<p>The vampiress’ veiled stare hardened. “My aim is not to pair people off, daemon.”</p>
<p>“I did not mean that, Pythia,” the lawyer backed off. “But I thought you would have appreciated it.”</p>
<p>“I would… appreciate to see all of us… out of my gloomy visions,” she uttered coldly. “My aim, daemon, is to find a way to survive our future.”</p>
<p>Afterward, the silence went on for long minutes. Cataliades said, “I don’t know what you don’t know, Ancient One, but it seems that Alia is still in love with Northman and wants to… give it a chance to right things. Something like that, I think.”</p>
<p>“Mmm,” hummed the sybil thoughtfully. After a while she added, “No political reason that you fathom?”</p>
<p>Cataliades stiffened. “As far as I know, Niall is dubious and Dillon is satisfied. But nothing more. I mean, no one pushed a way or another.”</p>
<p>“I’d like to meet the fae, Desmond.”</p>
<p>“It can be arranged. When would you prefer…?”</p>
<p>Her answer arrived after a lengthy pause. “Soon.”</p>
<p>Cataliades nodded, then continued casually. “What about your visions, if I may. Any… improvement?”</p>
<p>The scratchy sound emitted by the vampiress offended his ears and made his guts cramp painfully. The daemon catalogued it as a complain or a bitter laugh, and did not expect a further answer to his impolite question.</p>
<p>“My visions… my visions…”</p>
<p>“I apologise, Ancient One. I did not want to annoy you nor—”</p>
<p>“You’re a minor nuisance, daemon. And a necessary evil,” her voice had regained a human-like voiceprint and a thunderous volume. “My visions… have not improved… yet. But have diminished their most implied negative variables.”</p>
<p>“Uh.”</p>
<p>“I need to see the fae to… address a certain specific… variable.”</p>
<p>The daemon heard the dismissal in her tone and stood up.</p>
<p>“Ah daemon, perhaps I need to see Northman himself… without a formal summoning. Would you arrange it?”</p>
<p>Cataliades left with a faint migraine, surely due to the noise reducer, and abowel movement just beginning.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0039"><h2>39. Chapter 39</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p> </p><p>In the following ten days Alia flew to Shreveport (LA) and Benton (AR), then to Hattiesburg (MS), Tuscaloosa (AL) and next to Tyler (TX), to investigate on the weres violent outbursts. Eric escorted her in travels inside Great Louisiana, whereas out of kingdom it was Pamela, as royal investigator, to accompany her.</p><p>Those few weres who survived the slaughters appeared traumatised and with visible damages to several areas of their cerebral cortices, while vampires involved in those same violent altercations referred of weird behaviours on the weres part. It seemed that weres (mostly unaffiliated specimens who grouped together without any real commitments to each other) stirred up troubles against vampires as if guided by strong but unmotivated urgency.</p><p>In addition, most of weres previous traumas identified by Alia involved sexual abuse and torture. Actually, the telepath was able to elicit the most horrified reactions when prodding the areas involved in sexual response, and the usual outcome was a total shutdown of mind and body. A sort of defensive catatonia.</p><p>The fae was able to ascertain both the same kind of trauma/reactions in weres from different countries and the same lacking of motives or provocations in all circumstances. Their mental state of fragmentation and despair gnawed at the fae’s serenity for several days, letting her mentally messy and tainted.</p><p>“Alia,” Karin’s voice was low and sweet, “are you sure it’s not a sort of glamouring?”</p><p>“That’s the first thing I checked. In fact, inducing compliance through violence takes longer and is trickier than glamouring. But I’am sure, Karin. The marks are deeper than a mental influence… it’s a real traumatic experience.”</p><p>Karin nodded. She was pacing her tiny office watching ahead of her, without focusing on anything.</p><p>“Then we have to assume that it’s not a vampire attack, nor fairy’s,” said the vampiress.</p><p>It was shortly before midnight and the royal palace in New Orleans was in full swing. Alia had slept during late morning and afternoon, but she did not feel rested nor energetic and thinking was becoming increasingly unsettling.</p><p>“Let’s say that it seems a dirty work done by humans or weres… or by someone who want us to think that it’s been done by them,” Alia completed the vampiress’ thought. “But I’m more inclined to think it was humans’ doing.”</p><p>Karin frowned.</p><p>“I saw that kind of trauma… reaction, in other people… soldiers or abused women, children…” Alia sat and leant her head on the backrest of the sofa. She watched the ceiling and tried to chase away unwelcome images. Some of her primary school time, for instance. Or from the shrink her father had taken her for some time.</p><p>“Obviously, who did that didn’t take into consideration the fact that a telepath could see through their… conditioning. Therefore, I would exclude all praeternatural species… they would have used their powers or asked witches’ help.”</p><p>“Or, they want us to think so,” Karin murmured. “Cannot you determine for sure which is the case?”</p><p>“I tried, Karin. But none of them could endure a deeper examination, their minds are weakened and… already shattered. The risk is to leave them catatonic or worse.”</p><p>Karin hardened her face and said, “Choose one. One who seems less damaged and delve deeper to find a lead, something that gives us a direction.”</p><p>Slowly the fae turned to watch her friend. “It would be the most sensible thing to do, I know. But… it’s painful to feel all that…”</p><p>Karin’s office was small and ordered. Too neat, Alia considered as if seeing it for the first time. It was not welcoming and there was not Karin’s imprint in any choice. The curtains were too heavy and boasted a disgraced shade of yellow, hanging ominously from four metres as a sulphuric waterfall. The two sofas were oversized for the space and reminded gigantic vulvas down to their dull pink discolouration: half way between modern art shocking attitude and junk shop scrap. It was no wonder Karin sneaked always in Eric’s office or Hunter’s study.</p><p>“This way we’d have a chance to stop those killings, though,” Eric concurred, wrapping his arms around Alia’s shoulders.</p><p>The fae startled, but soon leant on his frame. “I didn’t hear you coming.”</p><p>Eric spoke to his child. “Karin, it’s all for tonight. I’m taking Alia to a restaurant or whatever.”</p><p>Karin stopped. “Sure. Next night we’ll see to a plan. There’s much more to take into consideration, I think. I smell something old, here.”</p><p>“Yes, old. Humans are not very inventive and tend to repeat themselves.” The fae stood up, eager to leave her mind and its images behind. “You should ask your sister to revamp the place, by the way. This office is not conductive to… anything good, I think.”</p><p>The vampiress took her jacket and went to the door behind them. “It was one of Sophie-Anne’s boudoirs, I was told. Tacky.”</p><p>Alia winced and took Eric’s hand. They left the room unhurriedly, crossing some richly furnished rooms and dimly lit corridors. Eric had not renovated the residence beyond the wing he occupied and the sensation to have the late queen still haunting the place was tangible.</p><p>Silently, they reached a large garage in an underground facility outside of the main building and got on a car. A shining red Corvette.</p><p>“It’s weird and… nostalgic,” said Alia relaxing on the passenger’s seat, a gush of old sensations intruding on her.</p><p>“It’s the last model produced, year 2039. But it was a new version of a 2021 model.”</p><p>Alia watched as Eric caressed the dashboard and touched the control panel, setting temperature, car windows’ opacity and direction. The car headed to downtown gliding smoothly in crowded streets, automatically avoiding pedestrians and other vehicles.</p><p>“I don’t understand why you buy a car like this and set it in automatic driving mode,” observed Alia when noticed that the vampire was watching her.</p><p>“I’m tired and it’s three months I don’t drive and,” he said slowly kissing her fingers, “I wanted to take care of you. Maybe, after dinner, I’ll drive it back home…”</p><p>“Mmm…” The fae stroked his lips with a finger. “It’s not funny eating with one who doesn’t. What about a stroll?”</p><p>“A stroll?” asked Eric. “My guards will be delighted.”</p><p>“Where are your guards?” Alia turned back and sideways, but could not locate any guard in disguise around them.</p><p>“You should not spot them so obviously, Alia.”</p><p>“Uh.”</p><p>“Two are following us with a car and two are in a flycar above.”</p><p>“Find a park and let’s walk, I’d like to enjoy this night doing something normal, relaxing.”</p><p>Eric selected the nearest park and let the car drive them there. The parkland was suspended some fifty metres from ground level, where severals lifts allowed entrance to the recreational area, and it faced the Mississippi river to the south-east. The French Quarter, or -more exactly- the part of it that had been rebuilt in the last twenty years, offered a brightly lit landscape and sounded alive with the usual mixed humanity of a festive evening.</p><p>Once inside the grassland, tall magnolia trees and sapiently positioned holograms blurred the urban scene and gave the illusion to be in a slice of tamed wilderness. Even sounds seemed to obey the fantasy and, through noise reduction and noise enhancement, the buzz of a forest enveloped the guests in its natural rhythms.</p><p>Vampire and fae walked silently inhaling the scented, humid air, heading to a patch of darkness under the canopy of a large pink-flowered tree. Alia let go of her mental shields and listened to the minds around them. As expected, she found very few humans strolling the green, several vampires and some weres. Around them, but at a higher level over a light slope and quite covered by more shrubs and trees, Eric’s guards waited, observing individuals who came too close. Within minutes Alia realised their security was indeed discouraging any presence around them and mentally made peace with the escort’s existence.</p><p>“I longed for a few hours like that, Eric. How did you know?”</p><p>“I didn’t. It was simply what I needed. Some time with you without work, problems or arguments.”</p><p>They sat at the base of the tree, a Kobus magnolia of remarkable dimensions, fingers laced and legs entwined. Lying down in a city park, oblivious to life concerns, seemed so unfamiliar yet ordinary. A perfect fantasy come true.</p><p>“If only we could afford these interludes often enough, I wouldn’t mind the occasional life attempt,” purred Alia raking a hand through his hair.</p><p>“Don’t even joke about it, Alia. It’s a real threat and till we don’t—”</p><p>“Hush,” she drew closer and kissed him, “not now. Don’t shatter my illusion.”</p><p>“Mmm,” he turned and repositioned her over his body. “What’s that grimace?”</p><p>“Your child, Karin,” explained the fae, “she’s nasty and sneaky. Yesterday she kicked me badly here.”</p><p>“Here?” he asked touching her right side. “Karin told me you fight very well, but lack concentration, sometimes. I can train you.” Eric’s hands were exploring her body, vigorously.</p><p>“Tell me where else she beat you, my inconsiderate child. I will heal you and reprimand her: I don’t like my playground damaged.” </p><p>“Here, mmm… yes, there too… oh, that spot is really sore, you should… yes, so…” His right hand was inside her thong and massaged gently her rear cleft, then a finger slipped inside and started its dance. His left hand pushed and massaged in front, in tight circles. Alia closed her eyes and relaxed in his care. It began slow and light, gathering its strength in waves and swirls until it exploded as a summer storm. Noisy and intense.</p><p>“Alia,” breathed the vampire urgently, “your scent…”</p><p>“Mmm…”</p><p>“Alia.”</p><p>She opened her eyes, surprised to find herself under a tree and over her vampire. Then, smiled. It felt like coming back home after a hard day. It was good. And something loosened inside her gut. A warm filling like vanilla custard seemed to spread in her belly, and she felt its sweetness in her mouth.</p><p>“A..lia…”</p><p>Bracing herself against his pecs, she unbuckled his belt and unzipped his trousers, freeing his erection.</p><p>“I think I’ll eat something…” she whispered.</p><p>His objections lost momentum as the fae began playing with him, and definitely subsided as she worked him deeper. She stopped and restarted a few times, giving him time to reassess his priorities. Then he begged her to let him come and she obliged not too soon.</p><p>His growl as he released almost undid the fae, and her sweet, spicy fragrance whiffed around them.</p><p>“Just to your knowledge,” whispered Eric not long after, “I can stand your scent only because I have your blood and your pussy, and a steely will.”</p><p>She laid languidly over his body and considered if continuing or putting off for when they would arrive at home.</p><p>“Not to mention that you just released and that even vampires need at least a few minutes to… restart,” she chuckled.</p><p>
  <em>You owe me a hundred bucks, lad—</em>
</p><p>
  <em>I don’t think so, he didn’t take care of it</em>
</p><p>
  <em>What?, he surely pushed his dick deeper and—</em>
</p><p>
  <em>No, no, he begged and she made him come at her bidding</em>
</p><p>
  <em>You’re idiots: no one won. He waited for her to get him off at her pace</em>
</p><p>
  <em>That’s what I said, you dickhead</em>
</p><p>Alia jumped to a sitting position and watched around, itchy and confused. It took her some seconds to expand her mind and find the source of that exchange. Vampires. She blanked her face and untangled the thoughts in the louder broadcaster’s mind, one who was still brooding over the whole wager.</p><p>“What the fuck,” she exclaimed. She forgot do blush. Also, too ashamed to be angry.</p><p>“Eric, take me home. Immediately,” she whispered.</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>Eric flew to his house at Lake des Allemands and landed on the southern deck. Alia, tightly wrapped around his body during the flight, peeled off from him and followed him inside without a word.</p><p>Vampires were strong broadcasters, Alia could nicely understand by recent and less so experiences. She did not need to focus on them nor enter their minds to catch what they were thinking. Were she careless, she would hear too much and be overwhelmed by all the clatter available. And, as usual, it is not a happy finding to know what people think in any given moment. She was still reeling from what had just happened.</p><p>Eric must have felt her change of mood and, with the light touch she had come to appreciate and long for, had driven her out of her gloomy brooding with his vigorous ministrations. His mouth devoured her the way she wanted to be eaten, with the proprietorial attitude of a farmer plowing his field. After a welcomed sense of satiety, the fae dozed off in his arms.</p><p>“Are you sure you don’t need to drink from me?” she said as soon as his movements woke her up.</p><p>“Your blood is richer than before… more nourishing and—”</p><p>“But you bit me, before,” she interjected, “and took just a few drops. I noticed your restrain.”</p><p>Eric laughed, and turned to her. “Those few drops were just to… spice up our pleasure, lover. It was not my meal.”</p><p>“Sex is already very lively between us, no need to—”</p><p>Her words drowned in his mouth and they kissed for a while, fondling each other in that relaxed way only sated lovers could do. They were in the living room adjoined to his study, overlooking part of the northern deck and the shore where the sun disappeared every day. The windows were partially screened but let in the muddy, fermented odours from the banks. They whispered of decay and renewed life cycles, of what comes after an end.</p><p>“What did upset you back at the park? I would have continued our <em>discourse</em> under the stars.”</p><p>“Ugh, your guards and their stupid bet,” she snapped, “and your super hearing… it was a private moment.”</p><p>Eric stopped his solicitous exploration of her breasts and stared at her. “Did you hear them? Honestly, I heard them faintly… but I was very, very distracted.”</p><p>“Mmm, I heard them… er, when we finished and they were discussing.”</p><p>“Yes, I’ve already made a note to remind them to put their attention elsewhere,” he remarked, “but they were whispering from afar. How do—” He stopped and braced on an elbow facing her. “Did you <em>hear </em>them?”</p><p>Her gaze flickered around the room and she bit her bottom lip, then nodded without looking at him.</p><p>“Alia, you read their minds…?” his question was uncertain and he lifted her chin with a finger.</p><p>The fae blinked. “I… I… yes, I…”</p><p>“But you don’t read me.” He stated flatly, then asked, “Or are you afraid to do so?”</p><p>Alia shook her head. “No, I don’t really read you… and, before you ask, none of your blood.”</p><p>Eric’s smile spread slowly to alight his whole face. “You’re wonderful, my little fae. I knew you could do wonders if only you set to.”</p><p>“Aren’t you… upset?” she asked tentatively.</p><p>“Why, lover? Because you’re perfecting your gift, increasing your power, becoming more wonderful day by day?” He took her face in his rather large hands and said, “The more you are, the more I have to love in you.”</p><p>The statement was one of love, but the tone was flat, as if commenting the need to replace a broken appliance or to walk the dog before going to bed. His eyes, though, were fixed on hers, and sparkled.</p><p>The fae let his words enter inside her and his love fill the void that had occupied her core since so long. She weeped and smiled, kissing his face.</p><p>“Ugh,” she breathed annoyed, “this weeping is really embarrassing… I don’t mean it… ugh.”</p><p>He cradled her in his arms and kissed her hair. “You know, maybe I don’t like that you don’t read me: it would be so easy between us if you could peep in my mind and see what I feel for you. You doubted your feelings, and mine. I wish you…”</p><p>“I fear to love you so much I can’t contain it,” she caressed his chest with her face and spoke over his nipples, biting and kissing them. Her tone was excited, sensually inspired, not exactly how she had intended to express it. But it came this way, and she thought to amend it the next time the occasion presented itself.</p><p>“Don’t contain it, then. I need all of it, all of you.” He lifted her over him and raised her legs until she straddled him, his erection hard against her crotch.</p><p>“Take me inside and love me some more, now.” He seemed to have perfectly understood her message, in all its nuances.</p><p>She swayed on his lap, pushing him to lay on his back over the thick, woollen rug that occupied most of the room. The only noises were their breaths and the faint cries of the crickets from the deck; all the remaining clamorous life cut out by the noise reduction system.</p><p>“Now, fae.” His whisper went down her ear and straight to her core, leaving a trail of excited nerves.</p><p>Alia bit and licked, taking her time. It was so good to let her senses explore his large, sinewy body. She had always thought it was too perfect: unmarred, sturdy, resilient. Now, though, she had seen his scars, deep into its inner folds, and wanted to lap them. Soothing.</p><p>“Fae, now.” His voice carried the urgency of a thirsty man in a desert.</p><p>“Mmm…”</p><p>He groaned and, in a swift scoop, lifted her hips and drove himself inside of her. Alia adjusted to him and savoured his filling presence, beginning to move as a wave over her personal shore. Relentless. His hands accompanied her hips seating himself deeper, stronger with every stroke. She forgot every doubt and made peace with her desires, letting her body accept the only rule she would ever abide by. She wanted him.</p><p>Afterward, they laid silently for some time. It was a perfect silence where her mind floated light and safe. Maybe, it was better not to read him, she sort of thought in that state of conscious sleepiness that a well exerted body granted. Whiffs of him wafted around her and she inhaled deeply.</p><p>“Mmm,” she murmured or thought, “I begin to understand all this thing about smell… it’s appetising.” Her thoughts were drifting here and there, perfectly disordered, and a large, rare ribeye with a side of french fries hanged at the forefront of her awareness.</p><p>“How did they teach you to read vampires? I mean, fairies are not known to be telepaths, are they?” said Eric, his voice deep and sleepy.</p><p>“Is there anything to eat, here?” she asked at the same time.</p><p>They smiled.</p><p>“It’s not something fairies taught me, and no, they’re not telepaths. But mostly are<em>feelers</em>…” she said absentmindedly. “Any food?”</p><p>“I think so… kitchen would be the obvious place to look for.” He pointed out somewhere on the left. “How did you do, then?”</p><p>She stood up and headed to the bathroom. “Mmm, if you want to know… my price is some meat plus french fries or something spicy.”</p><p>“I thought to have given you enough meat and spice, lover, but I’ll—”</p><p>She turned to him with a shrug and a self-satisfied smirk.</p><p>Eric stood up with the grace of a sluggish cat, and said, “All right. Beef, then. I’ll ask what weres have in the fridge.”</p><p>She followed him to the kitchen wearing his bathrobe, and immediately understood that that room was not a place he ever visited. She asked him to sit and browsed through fridge and cupboards to fix herself a meal.She moved lazily, telling him how his blood had opened her -evidently latent- capacity to read some vampires.</p><p>“Mmm, Thalia?” he asked surprised. “Therefore it doesn’t depend on vampires’ age… she’s quite old. Who else?”</p><p>“But only when she’s calm. Then, Roxanne, Rehema, Joseph Velasquez, Russell Edgington, Kainz… many others, but not all.”</p><p>“Rehema,” Eric stated with a thin smile.</p><p>“Uh.”</p><p>“So, you know how it is between us.”</p><p>“She told me.”</p><p>“Yes, but you know it’s true.”</p><p>Alia nodded and swallowed the bit of cheese she was chewing. “Mmm, still I don’t like it. The fact that she’s your… wife.”</p><p>“She’s one of my best friend and a valuable ally. You, on the other hand, have never ceased to be my wife in my mind,” his tone was, again, level and calm.But had a note of finality to it. “You’re not a choice to me, you’re a given.”</p><p>“Where do I rank in your order of priorities?” She had just poured some wine in her glass and was evaluating its colour.</p><p>Eric rounded the table and went to crouch at her side, his head at the same level of hers. “Fae, I gave away two hundred years to protect you. Where do you think you are?”</p><p>“Sorry,” she whispered pulling a face, “but at that time I felt left behind, alone.”</p><p>“Why do you think I asked two hundred years of marriage instead of the average hundred?”</p><p>“Pam said to offer an image of strength, stability, reliability, I don’t remember.”</p><p>Eric smiled. “I wanted back those two hundred years I offered for you, but I want to live all those years with you.”</p><p>“I didn’t expect you to be so… romantic,” teased Alia kissing him. “Our honeymoon may be over in a few years or decades.”</p><p>“Maybe we’ll be able to build somethingprecious together,” he countered. “I will work to that.”</p><p>“You’re a lot to take in, Eric,” the fae squeezed his hand. “I’ll work with you on this project.”</p><p>“And,” he wagged an eyebrow his usual way, “do you still love my bottom?”</p><p>“I’ll do anything to squeeze your ass, to bite it, to lick—”</p><p>“I want everything back between us, and more. Levity, fun, complicity, trust… even your stubbornness, if you can’t let go of it.”</p><p>“Mmm,” Alia smiled and brushed his arm with hers. “I changed a lot these years, but maybe not that much, eh? But I want all that, too.”</p><p>“Now, have you eaten enough?”</p><p>“I think so.” She drank the last drop of red wine and put down her glass. She watched him for some time. So did he. The right things had been said, surely with the purest intentions of all; the right feelings had been evoked; the right actions had been done. How much of all that could endure the test of time, though? Alia noticed that her attitude was trusty but not naive. But she startedalso to feel that it was just perfect as well. The way it had to be between them. So strong and absolute as to erase any other consideration. It had always been like that for them.</p><p>“Well, you said something about what you’d like to do to my bum,” he stood up and lifted her in his arms. “So, show me.”</p><p>“Eric, I don’t think to be able to show you anything, now.”</p><p>Maybe, facing life the way Pamela or Eric or Karin did was the right way, though. A day at a time. A long present day without past or future. Just now.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0040"><h2>40. Chapter 40</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p> </p><p>Eric listened to Pamela listing names of guests, locations, possible dates. They were choosing whom to invite to the meeting they would host, and how to set the stage to allow their telepaths to profit most from the presence of human and were entourages. The vampire had warned his lover not to let know of her increased skills power, not even to his children or her workmates. They had agreed that the news would not be greeted with favour nor acceptance. It would have been better, consequently, to disguise it and, to be on the safe side, make some mistakes to convince suspicious types of the improbability of the conjecture. </p><p>Eric, however, felt ambiguous about the additional skill of his fae lover. In some way he was elated, prone to boost and sustain it with his blood, if really that were the origin of her mind enhancement. On some level, though, he was also pleased not to be among the readable ones, even if his first thought about it had been that he would have benefited, had Alia read his mind about his strong feelings for her. The point was it, indeed; he would have welcomed her reading only in restricted areas of his mind. Although he had nothing to really hide from her. What was, then, that disturbed him about her telepathy applied to himself?</p><p>Slowly, a certain idea presented itself. Actually, more a sting or a fanged suggestion than a fully developed thought. It was the absence of mutuality. And the sneakiness of it. His total lack of control over it. The remote fear that he could have been led to think aptly hinted thoughts without noticing it.</p><p>He smiled at the irony. Exactly those same fears which had prompted his wife to break the bond. Something that had stripped him of the warmness of her vicinity, the comfort of feeling her love or soothing her with his. Something that she had instantly accepted to resume, his child had reported.</p><p>“Great Nebraska and Missouri in the same room?” the voice of his child intruded on his thoughts and he shrugged them at once.</p><p>“Compounded with Colorado’s presence,” continued Pamela in a teasing tone. “Are you sure?”</p><p>“The point is to have them all around, with their suite of humans to read.”</p><p>“But Colorado and Alia, uh?”</p><p>“She told me to have already… informed him of the presence of other choices open to her,” he offered by way of explanation.</p><p>“It doesn’t mean that he won’t be promoting his own… candidacy.”</p><p>Eric let his gaze wander, then said, “What a better occasion to let know everybody that we are an item, soon wed?”</p><p>“What about Missouri?”</p><p>“Karin is negotiating with him,” Eric concluded in a tone that left no room for replies.</p><p>Pamela, however, did not acknowledge it and continued. “Are you negotiating with Missouri?” After a while, in the silence that confirmed it, the vampiress asked, “Either I lost some pieces of the puzzle, or you’re playing with fire.”</p><p>The vampire smiled.</p><p>“I hate when you become so elusive,” she said crossing her arms on the chest. “If I don’t know what’s happening, maybe I make a mistake and—”</p><p>“Hush. Meet Texas and see how does he see our entente from here to… say a decade. Confirm to him all our current agreements and my everlastingalliance.”</p><p>Pamela gaped. “Are you using me as a messenger? A mere messenger?”</p><p>“An advocate. Would you like it better?”</p><p>“It would help knowing what should I advocate and for whom,” countered Pamela dryly.</p><p>“This mini summit has several purposes, some of them still to devise, as circumstances… unravel very unpredictably.”</p><p>“Mmm, do they?”</p><p>“Karin will brief you and,” he paused some seconds, “another assignment. Very delicate. Take Hunter or Leonard with you and go visit the Home Office’ local branch in Arkansas. Plan some plausible excuse and meet with as many officers as possible. Report at once.”</p><p>“Home office? Why don’t we ask our vampires in there?”</p><p>He frowned. Pamela was the child every vampire would like to have except some times. Those times she behaved like a child. A spoiled one.</p><p>“Is there a purpose in sending me ahead without knowing the whole picture?”</p><p>“Evidently.”</p><p>The vampiress stood up. “Are you afraid I may influence the situation? Someone?”</p><p>“I don’t know. It’s a feeling in my gut. Please, indulge me.”</p><p>Pamela nodded, retrieved her bag -a vintage satchel from the first decade of the century- and left the royal palace. Eric had watched her unhurried movements, her affected gait, the swinging of the bag as she had picked and shouldered it with excessive slowness. Had he checked his monthly expenses, he would have found a nice sum devoted to a certain bag. He had forgiven, maybe even endorsed, her nagging attitude for too long. Karin was right. It was time to address the issue and curb her aunty-spinster side.</p><p>He leant to the chair’s backrest and watched up, where the wall met the ceiling and an ornate strip of moulding rounded the angle. Everything was just fine, but he felt restless. Edgy. As a runner waiting for the start, but without a track in sight.</p><p>Latsis appeared in front of him and waited for Eric acknowledging his presence. After a while the secretary coughed.</p><p>“There are a few issues to address, sir.” The daemon could have waited for twenty minutes or more without flinching. He had done so many times. A sort of provocation on his part, or a statement. Eric smiled and nodded to the chair across from him.</p><p>They worked for a couple of hours, then the daemon left. The underlying turmoil stirring his composure was still there. Eric spoke to Wyoming and Mississippi, drawing up a plan of action toward the summit, then had a brief message exchange with Cataliades.</p><p>The last request from his daemon lawyer set off a warning bell that remained at the back of his head as a boring summer hit. The Ancient One would have appreciated a visit from the king, had related the lawyer, <em>in your time majesty</em>. This last detail, in the formal addressing so dear to the daemon, made him itchy. It only meant that the Pythia wanted to see him the sooner the better. But it was the location Cataliades gave for their encounter that left Eric more worried. Shreveport.</p><p>The Ancient One had never come to his kingdom. Nor had ever requested a visit. And the Pythoness was not known to invite friends for a tea.</p><p>Abruptly, the sound of a pounding heart filled the room.</p><p>Eric jumped from his seat with a knife and a las-taser at the ready, and stoodup in a defensive position. The heartbeats, slightly accelerated now, throbbed rhythmically informing that the bearer of that organ was excited or exerting himself. No one was in the room with him.</p><p>“What the…” whispered Eric. Walking around the desk, comprehension encroached on his awareness as a stinging mosquito in a lazy night. He went to retrieve his tablet, stuck in the fold of the armchair his child had occupied a few hours earlier, still chiming loudly at the rhythm of a hundred eighty heartbeats per minute.</p><p>“Pamela,” he barked opening the video communication.</p><p>“Are you fine?” Alia’s voice startled at his angry tone.</p><p>Eric’s exasperation deflated slowly. “It’s nothing. Pamela. Changed your profile’s ringtone. I should protect my phone with a dna-recognition safe lock.” The he added, “I was about to call you.”</p><p>Alia disappeared from the screen for a while, then came back. “Mmm, have you still work to do?”</p><p>“I’m open to suggestion.”</p><p>“Well, if you have a couple of nights to spare… you can join me in Shreveport.”</p><p>“Are you already there? “</p><p>“Yes, I anticipated my weekend here with my bother’s family… you said to have a lot of work to do.”</p><p>“And it seems I’ve got some work to do there, too.”</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>Alia opened the door wearing a tee-shirt and knickers.</p><p>Eric, leant on a doorjamb wearing a smirk over an elegant dark blue suit, watched her with gentle eyes and said, “I like to see that you retain some healthy unconcern for fashion, lover.”</p><p>“Mmm, would you prefer I wore something specific?”</p><p>“Yes.” He lifted her in his arms. “Nothing.”</p><p>“I think I should have it, what about you?”</p><p>“You tell me what you’d rather me wear,” he said striding across the living room.</p><p>“Ice-cream… and I think to have some pistachio.”</p><p>Eric came in without taking his eyes off of her. He wanted her with an annoying urgency that had built up during the short flight from New Orleans.He had almost forgotten the longing she elicited from him effortlessly. He took off her shirt and scooped her up, positioning her light weight on his lap.</p><p>“Just a few things before… Pam is planning a gathering among my neighbouring monarchs and some not so close, here in Louisiana.”</p><p>“She told me. It will give us a good chance to understand what’s happening. Maybe.”</p><p>“Are you sure to be able to handle all the mental burden?” he asked cautiously. “I mean, there will be vampires, humans, weres. All at once.”</p><p>“Mmm.”</p><p>He helped her to take off his jacket and shirt. “So, it’s true. You’re much more skilled and powerful than once…”</p><p>“Mmm, are you afraid?”</p><p>He smiled letting his hand follow the line of her neck, down to the collarbone and the upper arm. “No, lover. Just to know what to ask of you without endangering you with more than you can cope with. Tell me what you can or cannot do.”</p><p>Alia played with the locks outside his tight bun. “I can handle humans, weres, fairies and daemons since many years. I decide how deep and how extended my reading can be. What I don’t want is to damage anyone’s mind, nor to let them know that I’m inside their mind.”</p><p>He drew circles on her back with one hand and trailed the outline of her thigh with the other. The fae rested her forehead on his, rubbing herself on him.</p><p>“Your busy hands are distracting…” Then, she continued, “With vampires, though, I don’t know how far I can push before being noticed or spotted. Your kind reacts with headache and… surprise, at my touch I mean. I haven’t tried a deep dive, yet.”</p><p>“So, you should be careful. Maybe you can take some blood to be more… strong.”</p><p>“I don’t know. I’d like to understand if this thing is been triggered by your blood and now I have it for good. Or, if it’ll be sustained by it, disappearing if I don’t… feed from you.”</p><p>“Not this time. There will be a lot of people, and I’d like you to be stronger than ever.”</p><p>“Whom did you invite?” she asked casually, enjoying the sensation of fullness his proximity gave her.</p><p>“My neighbours: Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Missouri,” listed the vampire. “Then, some from Zeus clan who are not so close: Great Nebraska, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming.”</p><p>“Mmm, an hazardous move,” she commented. Next, she added, “All those crossed proposals will be known to everyone, by then.”</p><p>“And… does it worry you?” he let out, observing her carefully.</p><p>“Missouri is a very secretive ruler. Never met. And we don’t have much in our archives.” She relaxed in his embrace and let her thoughts flow freely. “Great Nebraska and Missouri together? Mmm, I don’t know… Alabama? I’m not happy to see her at your side.”</p><p>Eric pursed his lips. “And Colorado? Doesn’t his presence worry you?”</p><p>“I’ve already told you: he’s devious and… sneaky, but will be very careful. I’ve already assessed him: unworthy of trust, but in a weak position… amenable to some extent.”</p><p>“Wyoming said so, too,” confirmed he. “What about his proposal?”</p><p>“He’s been informed I have… better choices, but he will insist some more, I guess.”</p><p>Eric felt a light disquiet in her voice, and through her blood in him. “He wants you. His sexual interest was very clear back in Oklahoma, and the fact that you’re fae is not… secondary to his attraction.”</p><p>Alia hesitated. “We already had sex.”</p><p>His body stiffened without his command to do so, and his pupils expanded to the point the blue in his eyes became a faint circle around black chasms.</p><p>“When? Why?” His rasping voice sounded like crystalline rock being dusted in a grinder.</p><p>Alia stiffened in turn and watched him coldly. “For the same reason you fuck your donors.”</p><p>In the silence that ensued they held each other’s gaze. Raw.</p><p>“It’s different,” he finally said.</p><p>“I don’t think so. Why do you have sex with donors?”</p><p>“It’s not having sex, it’s fucking. And it’s a physical reaction to feeding, not any interest of sort,” he said curtly. “I don’t think you can match that.”</p><p>“You sure? Do you think that I cannot fuck one ‘cause I’m aroused by a mere physical desire?” she tried to hold her temper, but the steel in her voice was unmistakable. “You’d be so wrong: it’s years that I experience sex without feelings, and I had almost convinced myself that it was all that I had left.”</p><p>Eric stilled his hands on her hips and his eyes on hers. “I thought we were—”</p><p>“—nothing, Eric,” retorted the fae angrily. “Until very very recently you were not sure what to do, and neither was I.” She paused. “Tell me why you didn’t want to feed from me these last months, and when is it the last time you fed and fucked a donor?” She stared at him defiantly. “Even when you were wounded you didn’t…” Her voice trailed off without strength nor purpose.</p><p>Eric found hard to speak, as if his vocal cords had calcified. When he spoke, his voice was dull. “To take your blood is… not something I can do lightly. It’s not just feeding: it’s letting you inside me… to carve your place in my body, it’s opening to you and accepting you as a whole. A donor is to me like a steak to you.”</p><p>“I don’t fuck my steak!” she fired back. “When was the last time?”</p><p>The vampire hesitated. “Maybe a few weeks ago…”</p><p>“I’m sure your perfect memory can be more precise.”</p><p>Eric exhaled slowly, then said, “Eight days.”</p><p>“If I recall correctly, eight days ago I had proposed to you since more than a week, and I was working for you on the weres’ business. But we were negotiating very… intimately about this <em>bloody</em> marriage. You knew my feelings for you.”</p><p>“You were out of country. I needed to feed.” He paused. “It was just a blowjob… meant nothing to me.”</p><p>“Oh, but Xu meant less than nothing to me. And it was not so memorable, either. So, where’s the problem?” she replied.</p><p>Silence, again. More a reticence and an absence, though.</p><p>At the end, the vampire tightened his arms around the fae and held her close to his chest, his chin over her collarbone. “I can’t stand the idea of anyone touching you.”</p><p>“Actually, the idea of your dick stuck into someone else’s mouth fills me with unmeasurable pleasure and gratitude.”</p><p>Eric tightened his hold. His hands leaving red marks on her skin.</p><p>“Next time I hope you remember the existence of blood bags,” she added flatly.</p><p>They turned their heads to meet each other’s gaze. The room had lost its familiarity, and even the sparse furniture seemed alien and hostile. There was nothing to offer a solid, cosy shelter from the outside.</p><p>“Why…Xu?” he asked.</p><p>“No reason at all… he was there and I was… I don’t know what I felt, it was just a physical release of tension… I was scrambled, maybe sad… it had nothing to do with him.”</p><p>“Did he bite you?”</p><p>She made a face and hissed, “No!”</p><p>“Your blood… all of your body is sacred to me.”</p><p>“Maybe I fill the same with yours,” she said.</p><p>“Then, we should add a specific article in our marriage agreement.” he said icily. His grip had not relented.</p><p>Alia nodded.</p><p>“You’re mine,” he said after a while. His jaw tightened and his gaze flickered following the outline of her face. Then, he moved her over the sofa and lowered his body over her. Heavily.</p><p>A hand gripped her neck tracing its length with a thumb on her throat, descended to her breast and clutched it. His voice was hoarse when he asked, “When?”</p><p>“Mmm?”</p><p>“Before or after our conversation at your place?” He tightened a nipple between his thumb and forefinger till the wince on Alia’s face satisfied him.</p><p>Alia’s nails scratched his neck. “Before.”</p><p>“I’d have hated to punish you. But I would have done it, had you broken the rule after that night,” whispered Eric into her ear.</p><p>“We’ve not yet agreed on many rules and no contract has been signed.”</p><p>He chuckled dryly. “You are mine. And this comes with consequences. Foryou and others. No need of papers for that.”</p><p>Alia opened her mouth but Eric bit her lips, drowning her voice into his mouth. “Hush, fae. You stir something strong, wild within me. Don’t try me.”</p><p>Eric reaped her panties off and dived his head between her legs, inhaling deeply and making the last comment, “Learn the rules quickly, lover.”</p><p>That night he left his marks on her body. They would have faded in a few hours but Alia would have felt their message longer and deeper. And would have savoured their meaning with a wicked smile.</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>The flats over <em>OnceWasFangtasia</em> had been built with vampires in mind. And, specifically, for vampires who did not want to announce to the world at large that they lived in that building. So, there were several apartments of different size and finishing. And several level of privacy.</p><p>Alia’s accommodation was in the penultimate floor and consisted of entrance hall, living room, three rooms, kitchen, two bathrooms and two large terraces. Doors and windows were made of reinforced plasteel coated in silver alloy, while their locks offered personalisation through the current tenant’s blood. Window panes darkened to a matte grey, filtering ninety five per cent of sun light waves, and external sounds were damped down next to nil. The room service included a daily fresh supply of blood bags or donors available on request, and early evening cleaning. Lastly, all day round security was provided by the sheriff of Area Five.</p><p>It was late afternoon when Alia began to resurface from a deep, satisfying sleep. Eric’s limbs caged her and weighed on her chest, making breathing hard. However, she liked to wake up in his strong embrace and turned to face him without lifting his arms and legs, just rearranging them to allow her lungs to work easier and her legs to entwine his. Now, his face rested in front of hers on the same cushion and she noticed his eyes movements behind closed lids.</p><p>He was dreaming, she thought smiling, and then felt his erection pulsing on her thigh. She decided to spice his dream up and went down on him. In a fewminutes Eric woke up, enjoyed the pleasure pooling into his groins, watched his fae swallowing him with excited eyes and came into her mouth thrusting his loins with an erratic rhythm.</p><p>After some more minutes his heart calmed down and his mouth devoured hers, his mind still dazed with the fae scent enveloping them.</p><p>“Lover, this oral fixation you… developed so…” The vampire’s words were interrupted by the fae sucking and biting his tongue and lips.</p><p>“Are you… complaining…?”</p><p>“…beautifully,” he finished. “I wouldn’t ever… dream to object. Just wondering.”</p><p>“I like your scent, your flavour, the way you are completely in my power, the fact that I can pleasure you as I see fit.” She watched him without masking her want.</p><p>“Mmm, I like to the way you look at me when you own me.”</p><p>“And it’s the only way I’m totally in charge when making love to you.”</p><p>“Oh, lover.” His chuckle erupted from his mouth but propagated from his chest to hers. “You’re most welcome to be in charge like that… and you can have anything from me.”</p><p>Alia lifted her head and stared at him. “And I want everything from you. Well, maybe not another divorce.”</p><p>The vampire turned her on her back, positioning her legs over his shoulders, then pushed himself inside. He held her wrists tightly, although she moved only her hips to counter his every thrust. She smiled and let him mark his territory, enjoying the branding as waves of pleasure mounted through her body and mind.</p><p>Time disappeared and sensations took the place of thoughts, his presence occupying all her awareness. Smells like hectic hands over her body, his breath or hers, his heartbeats or hers, there was no distinction. It was somehow frightening, but she was lost inside it. The pleasure bounced between them and his eyes, through the veil of pleasure, never left hers.</p><p>Inquisitive. Assertive. Possessive.</p><p>“Bite me,” she whispered.</p><p>She felt the pull where his teeth had pierced her neck, like a current overloading her senses. And she bit his jugular, drawing his blood and thoughts at once. Not him, not her, just them. It lasted seconds. Minutes.</p><p>It was the first exchange since their reunion. </p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>The sun had set since more than an hour when Eric was having his shower. Alia had left the bathroom with a white robe, hungrily directed to the kitchen to see if the room service had replenished the pantry with fresh food.</p><p>The vampire still tasted her blood in his mouth and felt the strong energising force that marked one of the many new features of his lover’s favourite fluid. Its flavour more intense, its scent more sharp and heady, lingering in his nostrils longer and stronger than before.</p><p>It had been the first step to reestablish their bond and it felt so good to sense her mind again in his, even if it was still a weak presence. At that moment he realised how much he had missed that closeness, how much he had tried to ignore the tearing wound left by the breaking of their first bond.</p><p>He felt her levity while fixing a meal, and heard her humming an old tune completely out of key. He smiled and finished drying his hair with a towel.</p><p>He was half dressed and looking for a shirt when a solid chilling dropped flooded his gut: her consciousness had disappeared from his mind. He tried to relax and focus on the part of his mind that had hosted her presence.</p><p>Doubts and questions crowded that place, now. Was it because she was completely fairy that the bond had vanished? Could she close it at will? Could it be rekindled? Indeed, he had not considered the possibility that vampire and fairy could not bond the way they had before.</p><p>He finished dressing and went to look for Alia in the kitchen. A mounting uncertainty following him.</p><p>And it was there that he found her on the floor. Unconscious and with her robe partially teared apart. It took a few seconds for Eric to perceive the lingering fae scents. The stronger one he had come to recognise as fairy magic since the first time Alia had fainted.</p><p>Eric crouched at Alia’s side fighting his unsettling misgivings. Her heartbeat was steady though. That of a regular sleeping pattern. He lifted and cradled her as if not to awake her. As if not to break the news of another attempt on her life. To her, to himself. And all the questions it arose. Was it an attempt against her coming from her kin for still unknown reason, or an indirect attempt to him from yet another faction he had not seen coalescing?</p><p>A door slammed shut and dr Ludwig entered the kitchen.</p><p>“It’s becoming a bad habit, Northman. And a boring one, too.”</p><p>The little creature opened her old apothecary bag with callous hands, retrieved a vial and leapt to Alia’s side. Her large nose seemed to move independently from her mouth as she spoke. Eric tightened his arms around herlover and watched the doctor with a strained face.</p><p>“I won’t steal your fae, don’t worry,” her coarse voice matched her thick golden brown hair, arranged in a ponytail that could not tame its wilderness. The doctor licked the fairy’s wrist and swallowed. Then came down to her face and sniffed loudly around her mouth, continuing her deep inhalations along her breasts and to the navel.</p><p>“Ludwig, what are you doing?” Eric barked with barely restrained anger.</p><p>“Northman, don’t hinder me. I see that she’s yours, and noticed also the baby bond you’ve just created, ah ah ah,” the doctor uncapped the vial and waved its fumes around the fae.</p><p>Alia squeezed Eric’s hand while her eyes followed the doctor’s every move. She had awaken without a word.</p><p>“Then?” asked Eric. The vampire exuded worry and anger in alternate waves. “What have you in mind?”</p><p>“Fairy, was anyone else here with you?”</p><p>Alia watched the doctor and Eric, narrowing her eyes in the effort to remember.</p><p>“Indeed, I have the feeling that someone was here, but cannot fix any image… all is foggy.”</p><p>“Do you smell this stench, Northman?”</p><p>“Stench?” asked he surprised. His nostrils were saturated by Alia’s scent and he found hard to concentrate on anything else.</p><p>“Ah ah ah.” The raspy laugh of the hobbit sounded fake. “You don’t see much beyond your fae, eh? Someone was here… other fairies, I’d bet. But every trace is covered in fae magic… very strong, indeed.”</p><p>“That? Yes, I noticed it. What about Alia?”</p><p>“This fae is stronger than ever, maybe your blood protected her,” the doctor had put the vial back into her bag and was searching through it for something else. “Fairy, have you still got some of my pills?”</p><p>“Yes, I still have them.”</p><p>“Good. Then, continue not to take them and see if you can avoid kitchens altogether: they’re unhealthy for you. Ah!” The doctor took her bag and lifted her face to the vampire’s. “I’ll send you invoice and… something to tamper with this fae magic. On the house for once. Seeing a vampire so lost for a fae is funny enough.”</p><p>The vampire’s gaze hardened. Eric put the fae down on the sofa, and stood up. The creature stilled. After a few seconds in which his stature explained to the doctor how unwise would be another joke on her part, he asked, “Who called you, Ludwig?”</p><p>“Ah,” she mumbled. “Aengus.”</p><p>Eric lifted a brow.</p><p>“He said his cousin had fought and succumbed to a spell of nasty magic.” </p><p>Alia turned to the creature, frowning. “Was… was he injured?”</p><p>Eric felt a sting of annoyance at her question.</p><p>“Very,” replied the doctor.</p><p>“Thank you, Ludwig. Hope not to bother you again,” said Eric and turned to Alia. </p><p>The doctor disappeared, without caring to exit the room first.</p><p>Eric sat at Alia’s side and watched her. He did not know what to feel. Nor what was appropriate to the situation. Lately, nothing seemed ever easy. </p><p>“Now, lover, you may want to explain.”</p><p>Alia nodded hesitantly, and he could feel her uncertainty. “I don’t know for sure… but I have the feeling Aengus was here. Like a dream. I feel like he was here but have not images of him being here. Is it weird, uh?”</p><p>“You’ve been hit by some strong magic,” Eric said. “Even your Britlingen’s been knocked out.”</p><p>“Mmm.”</p><p>“Why did you ask if he was injured?”</p><p>Alia shook her head, her eyes lost in dizziness.</p><p>“Here,” said the vampire rolling his sleeve up. “Drink some more and try to remember.”</p><p>The vampire felt her wavering. She shook her head hesitantly. And a couple of minutes elapsed. Eric hardened his stare. Disappointment is less hard when one expects it.</p><p>“I won’t—”</p><p>“Wait,” she said gripping his arm. “Sit down.”</p><p>He was not sure to be willing to.</p><p>“Please,” whined Alia.</p><p>He sat down with a tired sigh.</p><p>“I wouldn’t like to become dependent on your blood.”</p><p>His blank face was turned her way, his eyes registering every change in her features and committing them to memory. He would have remembered her umpteen rejection and recalled it to understand why, after all, they were not meant to be together.</p><p>He nodded. It was not acceptance, nor understanding. She must have felt something through their nascent bond. He was tired.</p><p>“Do you understand, Eric?”</p><p>He shook his head. “I am dependent on you. Not only your blood, but everything. That’s the way, if you love someone.”</p><p>Alia sinked her fingers in his arm and looked at him from another place. It was not far, but enough. He watched her silently. Tired.</p><p>“Open your wrist,” she finally said.</p><p>“Why?”</p><p>“I need you.”</p><p>His smile was sad when he said, “I don’t want to tie you to me with need and necessity. That leads to the wrong kind of dependency.”</p><p>“I feel your sadness… your disappointment with me. I don’t want that. It makes me sad.”</p><p>“Another form of dependency, then,” he said.</p><p>“Maybe independency is overrated,” she replied tartly. “Open your wrist. My head is about to explode and arguing with you is not improving it.”</p><p>He shook again his head. It seemed his default communication now. “That’s not what I wanted. I— I just wanted to help you the way I’m able.”</p><p>Alia flinched. “Give me your blood, please.”</p><p>Eric watched her intently until the embryonal bond let out her whining fears. And a timid smile on her face begged for his patience. He opened his vein and offered it to her. She latched her mouth on the dripping wrist and sucked. His blood found its way through her body and filled small holes, little cracks. Delivering its strength.</p><p>He wanted to fill every void, any absence in her. He wanted to be in her.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0041"><h2>41. Chapter 41</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Niall was not overjoyed to be in New Orleans.</p><p>Nor was he thrilled at the idea to meet with the king of Great Louisiana.</p><p>Since his ascent to the throne, in fact, the commercial and financial relationsbetween the vampire kingdom and the fairy agencies had been supervised by Dillon and maintained by Aengus. Niall had restricted greatly his activity in Faery and concentrated his personal interests on Earth, keeping them carefully guarded from his relatives. The old prince knew to have been left with little means in Faery, but his terrestrial business had been allowed to thrive without much interest, and to gain some room for manoeuvre in the political imbalance that seemed the leitmotif of Faery since a couple of centuries.</p><p>Probably this last emergence had spurred some animosity and, consequently, it had turned to target his great-great-granddaughter. To be honest, though, this was an hypothesis as any other Niall had come up with. And now he had to respond to Northman. This would be their third encounter in less then six months, and probably the less friendly.</p><p>The first one had been with his secretary, the daemon Latsis. It had been smooth and brief. Only after some time Niall had discovered that the secretary had not know who Alia Brigant was, and had not warned the king about his first wife’s return. A minor misunderstanding, after all.</p><p>The second one had been less than three months ago, following the second life attempt to Alia, along with Dillon. Northman had been more scared than furious and had accepted to pay the huge half-fee to secure a Britlingen warrior for Alia, unbeknownst to her.</p><p>And now he was alone to meet a very incensed vampire, Cataliades had warned him.</p><p>“Brigant,” the voice was harsh.</p><p>“Northman,” the fairy prince replied placidly raising his head from the menu. They were in one of the four restaurants of the <em>Heaven’s Door</em>, the most expensive hotel in town, of which the house of Brigant held half of the shares. The vampire king, though, collected his tithe and shielded them from undue interest from the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs, which could use the racial discrimination card to meddle in their business. In fact, the ownership was half fairy and half daemon, and they did not hire vampires nor weres. Even humans were not numerous, indeed.</p><p>“I don’t think you’ll be able to eat, tonight.”</p><p>“I was just verifying the level of the service offered,” Niall kept his voice soft and invited the vampire to sit down.</p><p>“A week ago another attempt to Alia’s life,” the vampire spat with a certain contempt, taking a seat opposite the fairy. “I think I gave you long enough to fix this situation your way.”</p><p>“And I’m working on it, Northman. No one is more interested than me to—”</p><p>“Your interest is next to nil if compared to what I will do if another one of your fairy scum approaches my lover,” Northman interjected with a hiss.</p><p>“I understand that you are worried. But I assure you that I am about to identify those responsible: both perpetrators and instigators.”</p><p>“<em>You</em> should be worried: no treaty with Faery would stop me,” stated the vampire with a gravity that conveyed the message in all its possible consequences.</p><p>“Northman, we’re talking about my granddaughter,” replied the fairy flatly. “I’m deploying all the means necessary to stop this threat once and for all.”</p><p>The vampire watched the fairy’s wrinkled face, elegantly expressionless, and wondered what feelings he really had for his descendant.</p><p>“The fae magic involved is great, so I’ve been told. Explore this option, in depth. It has been detected every time. Even the Britlingen couldn’t oppose it.”</p><p>His sources had pointed to water fairies, as they were known as the most powerful in magic and spells. And, also, that no fairy wizard ventured to this dimension for long periods. He had passed the information a couple of months back, even if Brigant should have know already. It had been a way to let the prince know that the vampire knew more than he thought and would not have accepted half truths or lame solutions.</p><p>Now, though, Eric was not beyond drastic and inelegant resolutions. And he would have preferred to discuss them with Dillon.</p><p>“I’m already following this trail.” Niall smiled mildly and added, “But I heard you’ve been able to defend her, the previous time. And it seems you had a reward for that.”</p><p>The king stood up. “At any rate, you are wrong, Brigant. We are speaking of my mate, and there is nothing I would not do to keep her healthy and happy.”</p><p>“Speaking of which,” continued the fairy unfazed, “a request has landed on my desk about your marriage.”</p><p>Northman narrowed his eyes.</p><p>“Alia asks what political consequences her marriage with you could cause to Faery and what steps to take to make it convenient for both parties.”</p><p>“My fae,” spelled out the vampire, “can have whatever she wants from me, she has just to ask. But I won’t ask anyone’s permission to adopt any measure I think suitable to defend what is mine. Not even Alia’s.”</p><p>“I am glad to hear that, Northman. But I am not your enemy, here.”</p><p>“Lucky of you, then.”</p><p>The vampire left the restaurant followed by his suite, which had waited for him outside the hall. Niall, contrary to the vampire’s prediction, stood at the table waiting for his second guest. And before long Alia arrived.</p><p>The old fairy greeted his granddaughter in a soft embrace, keeping her in his arms for a little longer than usual.</p><p>“Niall,” she broke loose from his embrace and smiled. “So long… how are you?”</p><p>“My child…”</p><p>They sat silently for some minutes: Alia wondering how much dejection his grandfather was piling up on his shoulders, Niall feeling a sharp sadness in his bones.</p><p>“My child, know that I’m taking care of you and in a few days those who attempted to your life will be disposed of.”</p><p>She nodded, but did not feel reassured by his words. The sudden realisation that the fairy in front of her was not any more the powerful prince she had once known struck her, leaving a feeling of abandonment in its wake.</p><p>Niall shrugged off an unfriendly sensation creeping up from his feet. “At any rate, you are well, I see.”</p><p>“Yes, I’m well,” she confirmed.</p><p>“And… I see that you have started another bond with… your vampire.”</p><p>“Yes.”</p><p>“Therefore… you’ve made up your mind. You will marry him.”</p><p>“So it seems,” she said carefully. “We have not yet discussed all the formalities involved but… yes. I want him.”</p><p>“It’s always been like that with you two,” said the fairy.</p><p>“I don’t think so, Niall,” remarked Alia. “This time I am conscious of my choice and… determined. I won’t let anything, anyone cross me. So, don’t try to talk me out of it.”</p><p>The prince nodded. “You won’t believe me, but I am content with your choice.”</p><p>Alia lifted an eyebrow and was quiet.</p><p>“I know that I’ve not been always up to your expectations,” started Niall in a low voice, “but I love you, my child, and I want to see you happy.”</p><p>“I’m working on it, and I’m resolved to find my happiness… no one, no thing will take it away from me. I will build or destroy it myself.”</p><p>The old fairy took one of her hands in his and said, “Then, let’s draw up a contract that helps you to solidify your happiness and won’t allow you to destroy it casually.”</p><p>
  
</p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>Bartlett Crowe’s large frame was barely visible through the screen, but it showed in his voice: thunderous and, right now, annoyed.</p><p>“I’m almost certain it’s been one of my day-men,” he said.</p><p>The king of Indiana had just been the victim of a failed life attempt, and the near brush with death had reignited his passion for life which, as of lately, had been clouded by the hundred trivial (and less irrelevant) complications that usually existence brought about.</p><p>“Explain,” invited Eric with a hand gesture which did not appear on the screen. They were holding their monthly meeting via web. Russell Edgington and Joseph Velasquez were also present, along with the queen of Alabama.</p><p>“It’s a simple deduction. I was still in my chamber for the day, and had just woken up and needed to feed. My day-man that day was Morris, but he had switched shift with Andrew who, as usual, sent me a donor: a were that evening.” Bartlett’s brown curly hair was wet after a shower and the vampire passed a hand through it with a nervous twitch, sending droplets of water around. Repeatedly.</p><p>“Bart, stop that hand!” complained his husband from the right pane of the screen Eric had in front of him. The spouses, each in his own kingdom, had not yet met after the accident and were quite edgy. “Given that it’s been the donor to assault you, what has your day-man to do with it?”</p><p>“Andrew, a were himself, was quite surprised to see me alive after feeding and didn’t explain why he had switched his shift, nor why the donor’s blood was laced with drugs.”</p><p>“What did happen to your periodic health check on your donors’ pool?” asked Rehema.</p><p>“That’s another point against my day-man,” continued Bartlett nervously. “The donor had just joined my service and no recent check had been performed. Andrew let him in without inspecting his status. And… both were agitated…”</p><p>“Did you question them?” asked Eric sensing that something was still to come.</p><p>“Mmm…”</p><p>“Bart,” pushed Russell after a while. “We’ve already discussed that. Speak up.”</p><p>Eric and Joseph locked eyes through the screen, each wondering if the other were already informed of what the king of Indiana was reticent about. Both shook their heads imperceptibly and waited.</p><p>“Er…” Bartlett raked his hair twice before continuing. “Andrew confessed to have been paid by Tennessee and the donor mentioned Arkansas…”</p><p>Silence enfolded the five vampires and lasted for some minutes before the queen of Alabama interrupted it.</p><p>“That implies an agreement between Tennessee and Eric,” she stated.</p><p>“Yes,” confirmed Russell after a little pause. “That is why I’m not convinced.”</p><p>“I can vouchsafe for Eric,” continued Rehema flatly.</p><p>“No need,” countered Russell. “No one believed that… yet it opens several scenarios…”</p><p>Eric observed the screen’s camera without focusing on any of his allies.</p><p>“Mmm,” a low humming came from Texas’ microphone. “Curious…”</p><p>“What?” It was Bartlett who asked the question after some seconds.</p><p>“I suffered a <em>curious</em> attempt myself, a couple of weeks ago,” Joseph started, “a were guard tried to get into my room, unsuccessfully. His questioning was problematic. Like those of the weres Alia checked last month…”</p><p>“The results?” Rehema asked.</p><p>“Unsatisfying, and,” the texan vampire smiled without humour, “he said something about… Northman.”</p><p>“Would you consider to let the telepath… to check some more?” Rehema offered.</p><p>“Certainly, but for the problem of the were’s untimely passing.”</p><p>“Bartlett…?” the queen offered again.</p><p>“Yes, but only Andrew is still alive.”</p><p>“Eric, when do you think your fae could fly to Indiana?” asked the vampiress.</p><p>“<em>My</em> fae may not be the right instrument, given her relationship with me. If you,” said Eric watching from Bartlett to Joseph, “give some credit to what you extracted from the assailants.”</p><p>“No one questions lady Alia’s trustworthiness,” said Russell.</p><p>“Alia and I will be marrying again soon,” informed Eric.</p><p>“Congratulations,” replied Russell. “But this is not the point. Whoever organised these… attempts is missing some information.”</p><p>The red headed vampire sighed and continued, unflappable. “Some two months ago I suffered a life attempt, a human and a were were involved. The questioning was brief and… both accused Bartlett, without knowing of our blood bond…”</p><p>“And do you suspect all these attacks have a common… origin?” asked Eric.</p><p>“Of that I cannot speak with direct knowledge, but… but… it reeks of someone who does not know about blood bonds, about our personal relationship, about our alliance…”</p><p>“Thus, it excludes vampires in general and, in any case, specifically us. And also daemons and fairies,” expounded Eric, “but it does not explain why weres are involved. They do know about our relationships and blood bonds. It leaves only humans…”</p><p>“Humans who want to see vampires against weres,” concluded Joseph.</p><p>“But it doesn’t explain how humans could accomplish it… how they could force weres to do as they wish,” objected Rehema.</p><p>“Let’s consider, just for a moment, that all incidents are… related, and are part of a scheme to stir up things against us, included the seemingly inexplicable brawls on our borders…” started Eric. “Humans can be behind it, ‘cause they don’t know exactly our true relations or alliances. No one, I believe, knows about our marriages and our political and economical agreements. They see businesspeople who are partners in single or several companies, but not many, as we hide behind multinational enterprises or use different names in the human world. But why should weres lend a hand to provoke us against themselves?”</p><p>“Weres do not act as a single society, as we do. They think in terms of pack, herd, bunch: geographically limited groups. What benefits one group can be detrimental to another,” offered Joseph, “and they don’t care.”</p><p>“And don’t forget what Alia found in those who survived to attacks: theyhad sorry minds,” added Russell. “We know that weres’ mind are more instinctual and basic than humans’ or ours. Their beast is at a shallower level than humans’. Therefore…”</p><p>“…they are more easily swayed by… the right tools,” completed Bartlett.</p><p>“Trauma,” said Rehema. “As Alia reported…”</p><p>Then, they were quiet for a while.</p><p>Finally, Eric broke the silence. “At the moment, just speculations. We should follow every trail and, if you agree to use my telepath, leave more survivors to question.”</p><p>They adjourned the meeting to when their investigations would have gathered more data, but Eric could not avoid sensing something crawling behind his back. It was just a tingle at the base of his head. An ominous, unfathomable awareness.</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>Eric knew from direct experience that instinct was a powerful instrument, a kind of messenger from far away. He considered it as the canary in a coal-mine: harbinger of dangers to come. Yet, unlike the said canary, the threats it could signal were undetermined and hazardously varied.</p><p>Cataliades was due to arrive in half an hour and the vampire had not yet decided what to make of his encounter with the Ancient One. He had meant to ask Alia to accompany him, but that same night she had suffered the forth attempt on her life and he had preferred to go alone. That occurrence had represented another surge of his instinctual messenger, and it had bothered him in a painful way.</p><p>Consequently, Eric had joined the Pythoness in her lacustrine abode near Shreveport with a foreboding sense of loss he could not pinpoint, but it had followed him nonetheless.</p><p>The old vampiress had been evasive, cryptic and, finally, relieved. Eric had not understood their interaction and surely had not figured out if the encounter had ended well or not. The female’s behaviour had unsettled him with the veiled threat she had shared and the suggestion (or command?) to take care of his fae. The final word had been a warning about the preciousness of life and the circumstance that it had to be protected wherever it came from. <em>I know you will do the right thing for us all</em>.</p><p>Eric shrugged away her words and the unsettling feeling he had gained from the experience. When the daemon lawyer arrived, the vampire was still mulling over the sybil’s unspoken message.</p><p>They worked intensively for a couple of hours, solving minor problems on several joint enterprises between his and his main allies’ companies and on the developing of the Mars Two project. Then, the vampire told the daemon to discuss further details with his secretary and called the meeting to an end.</p><p>“What about the marriage agreement with lady Alia? I received a few corrections from the House Brigant and there are still parts to be… completed.”</p><p>“Leave it here, Alia and I will discuss it personally,” replied Eric.</p><p>The daemon nodded and waved over his tablet’s projected keyboard sending the dossier to the king. “Is there anything else I can do for you?”</p><p>“The past week I met with the Pythia…”</p><p>The lawyer decided to wait for a specific request and wore a detached face.</p><p>“I saw Diantha…”</p><p>“From time to time she serves as the Ancient One’s handmaid.”</p><p>Eric nodded, paused, then spoke again. “The sybil was cryptic, as usual.”</p><p>“As usual.”</p><p>“The seer believes someone is attempting to… our lives or our life. Cryptic, I said.”</p><p>“Both, I guess,” the daemon feigned calmness. “The Pythoness is very worried about extant threats to… life, our life.”</p><p>“Life. Vampires and daemons?”</p><p>“The Ancient One is very… encompassing in her visions,” started Cataliades. “To her we are all drawers of the same chest, albeit different.”</p><p>Eric smiled. “This comparison is not hers.”</p><p>“No, sure. She speaks with circular sentences: they can be listened from start to end and back, and the meaning is always elusive.” The daemon smiled at the king’s expression of confirmation. “Have you checked with the Home Office’s local branches, majesty?”</p><p>The vampire nodded, and said, “Hunter’s been charged of it.”</p><p>“The Pythia recommended to… follow that trail, accurately.”</p><p>“She reminded me of it,” the vampire confirmed, “and hinted to Alia as… a very important piece of… our life.”</p><p>“Indeed.”</p><p>“Cataliades,” said Eric after a while, “how is it that I have the sensation that you are keeping too strict a company with her? Till the point to absorb her unsettling way of not speaking?”</p><p>The daemon agreed. “Those who lie down with dogs get fleas.”</p><p> </p><p>
  
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  </div></div>
<a name="section0042"><h2>42. Chapter 42</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Flying over Lake Cataouatche toward Alia’s house, Eric felt the surge of energy as he approached. It was the embryonic bond that adjusted inside of him. This time the connection had a different strength and a deeper reach, but it gave him the feeling to be arriving at home, as it had done before. And it was this sensation, to have a home to go to, that filled him with peace and fear. The old vampiress’ words, in fact, kept rolling in his mind and he found many unsettling undertones and meanings among their folds. The fact that Alia’s life was in danger could not have been a simple warning from the seer, given all the attempts on her life already occurred. Therefore, Eric concluded, it was another danger she was referring to. Which one amongst the variety he could think of? That was where his fear stemmed from and smeared with its greasy fingers his otherwise perfect moment.</p>
<p>“You’re worried,” stated Alia kissing him as he landed in her back yard.</p>
<p>He smiled and hugged her. It was so comforting and convenient to communicate without the burden of speaking which, most times, could be a hindrance and not a real exchange. He would have tried to mask his sombre feelings at one time, but now he felt he could share his world with her.</p>
<p>“If it’s for me, don’t, please,” the fae continued. “Niall called me, earlier on.”</p>
<p>It was almost four in the morning and his personal guards had joined Alia’s security. Since they had come back from Shreveport he had been staying at her place, spending his spare and resting time with her. He had not asked, she had not objected: a silent deal that satisfied both. To a point.</p>
<p>They entered the house and sat down on a couch, in her sitting room. Since Eric had installed the noice reduction system in the house, the wall mounted sliding glass doors facing the garden were mostly open. It was weird to see and smell the lake without hearing the crickets or the frogs.</p>
<p>“Tell me,” he said finally.</p>
<p>Alia sighed and folded the legs at her side. “He found and… executed my bombers. They were fairies living on Earth. Part of those who stayed back when he closed the portals forty four years ago. It seems that they were acting on… his wife’s orders.”</p>
<p>“Wife? Niall has a wife?”</p>
<p>“Branna,” answered Alia. “His estranged wife. It happened before he met his human lover, Einin, with whom he fathered my grandfather.”</p>
<p>“I’d like to know more about you, Alia, if you trust me enough for that.”</p>
<p>She found all the secrecy praeternatural creatures kept around their lives quite annoying, although she understood the defensive nature of that reticence. It had served them well in their long existence, and failing to see its extant role now would not be a wise choice.</p>
<p>“I trust you with my life, I can let you in on my fairy ancestry.” And she told him about Fintan and Dermot, Dillon and his progeny, Aengus and Aine, giving him also a shortened version of the role of Cataliades in her gift.</p>
<p>“Yes, he’s my godfather,” smiled Alia, “and he takes his role very seriously.”</p>
<p>“Cataliades?” repeated Eric shaking his head. “And I suspected him of not-very-clear intentions against you. More than once.”</p>
<p>“Who, Desmond?” she looked at him surprised. “He loves me… I am what remains of his lover. But this is not my story to tell.”</p>
<p>The vampire laid his head on her lap and closed his eyes, all the while she undid his bun and raked her fingers through his golden locks. Alia omitted to expand on the role of the powerful water fairy who had casted the spell. Or the unexpected fiery fight she had parred it with, albeit not remembering it yet. Niall had assured that as the magic faded, there was a chance her memory of those lost minutes might come back. Finally, she did not mention anything about the vampire’s determinant part in thwarting the ambush. Maybe, time would dispel the fogginess. Maybe, the spilled blood would cover any trace.</p>
<p>Alia had learned her lesson, though: only blood cleanses a blood offence and Niall’s absolute disregard for his kin’s blood had been paid with the same coin. Maybe, the blood thirst would have found another path to follow its vicious appetite. Alia, though, was afraid to put a finger in that wound. And Niall’s last words had not appeased her misgivings. <em>Aengus has taken care of his end.</em></p>
<p>“You haven’t told me yet what the Pythia wanted from you,” she asked after some time.</p>
<p>“It’s two weeks I’m thinking about her words… but I have not reached a reasonable meaning.”</p>
<p>“It seems that she’d like to see me, either. So Desmond told me.”</p>
<p>He turned his head to face her. “I can take you there, if you wish.”</p>
<p>“Yes, I do.”</p>
<p>He smiled and closed his eyes again. It was so easy to relax in her welcoming arms: he forgot his misgivings about the threats against his kingdom and his allies, the troubles of governing over an ever growing vampire society, the minor complications arising on daily basis in his companies’ management. He realised he had not had any true reprieve from his working commitments for decades. Really, he had not looked for any.</p>
<p>“Alia,” whispered the vampire.</p>
<p>“Mmm,” she had leant her head on the backrest and lost her mind in the silkiness of his hair. Her body was drinking avidly the energy his closeness granted her, and her mind was resting peacefully in his calming void.</p>
<p>“Make love to me, lover.”</p>
<p>“Mmm…” The fae slid over him and began to undress him, slowly. “Demanding…”</p>
<p>“Now, fae.”</p>
<p>She had almost got him completely naked and was kissing his lower belly, trailing the blond line of hair that went down. “An urgent request?”</p>
<p>He felt her excitement through their bond and pushed his eagerness to her. “An order… with punishment in case of no compliance.”</p>
<p>Alia felt his physical arousal both on her breasts and in her mind. The germinal bond already showed a different character from the one they had before. It was deeper and stronger albeit still incipient, as he had confirmed on his part, and she was able to read it altogether and to use it effortlessly. And these features gave a new taste to their lovemaking.</p>
<p>“I may like <em>this</em> bossy side of yours,” Alia whispered shrugging off her last piece of clothing, and taking him inside. She forgot to have the house surrounded by their guards, all vampire but for the Britlingen warrior, and moved over him, this time like a rough wave, letting their pleasure flow through them seamlessly.</p>
<p>“Bite me,” she murmured after a few minutes.</p>
<p>Eric pierced his wrist and offered it to her, biting her jugular as she latched on his slashed forearm. It was their second exchange and the mixing of their bloods hit them unexpectedly.</p>
<p>While making love their bodily sensations were heightened and summed up, so that each one felt the physical pleasure of the other as their own. That much they had already experienced after their first exchange, and they had noted it as one of the many differences with their first blood bond. And then, suddenly, both had experienced the weird impression to inhabit the other’s body. It was not simultaneous and had not the same intensity, but the feeling of dislocation was real and shattering. Luckily it lasted only a few seconds, but left them oddly affected for its suddenness and depth.</p>
<p>Alia likened it to a deep dive into one’s mind with a creepy twist: for those few seconds she thought to be Eric. There was no separation, no sense of observing the other, no duality. The vampire, for his part, had not terms of comparison and the event sparked a new kind of possession for him. Eric, in fact, rejoiced in the feeling of utter dominion the inner perception gave him, and wished that it would blossom into a fixed feature of their bond.</p>
<p>“It’s awful, Eric,” protested Alia with evident distaste.</p>
<p>“Why, lover? It would be perfect. Think of it as a way to understand from inside the other. You cannot fail to fully appreciate reasons, behaviours, feelings.”</p>
<p>“Eric, you don’t know what’s inside a mind,” she started. “Most thoughts, and behaviours’ motives, are egotistic, stupid or petty, at best. If—”</p>
<p>“I don’t care what’s in people’s minds,” interjected Eric holding her face in his hands. “I’m thinking about your mind: only that interests me.”</p>
<p>“But I’m no exception, my love,” she replied mildly.</p>
<p>The vampire smiled and cradled her in his arms. “Say it again.”</p>
<p>“I’m no exception.”</p>
<p>“Not that, fae,” he purred into her ear. “How did you call me?”</p>
<p>His low, captivating voice sent a thrill through her spine and she reacted instinctively tightening her embrace. “My love?”</p>
<p>“It’s the first time you call me so, and I like it very much.”</p>
<p>“It’s the first time I call anyone this way.”</p>
<p>“I like it even better,” he whispered fondling her. “Use it freely, lover. It improves my mood and my libido.”</p>
<p>“I don’t think your libido needs to be encouraged more, my love.”</p>
<p>“It soothes my ego, then.”</p>
<p>“Another part of you that doesn’t need any attention, my love.”</p>
<p>Eric stood up holding her in his arms heading upstairs to her bedroom.</p>
<p>“Don’t you want to please me, lover?”</p>
<p>“Yes, but not spoiling you, <em>my love</em>.”</p>
<p>The vampire inhaled deeply from under her neck, smelling her sweet fairy scent. “Mmm.”</p>
<p>“Mmm…”</p>
<p>“I need to have you around me all the time,” his low voice entered directly into her bones, smashing yet another barrier. “Move in with me, lover.”</p>
<p>She felt the mattress on her back as he laid her on the bed, and held on on him pulling his body over hers. Dawn had passed long ago and her eyes betrayed her tiredness.</p>
<p>“Mmm, you around me all the time… almost frightening.”</p>
<p>He cackled. “This time we won’t make mistakes, Alia. I don’t want to part from you anymore.”</p>
<p>“Neither do I.”</p>
<p>
  
</p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>After two weeks, the relative calmness tasted with the news of Alia’s assailants’ death blew away in a moment.</p>
<p>Karin entered Eric’s study at the royal palace and sat in front of his desk without a word. Her face was sombre.</p>
<p>“Child,” Eric lifted briefly his head from the screen of his laptop. “Something worries you?”</p>
<p>“Russell’s second called: Bartlett is dead.”</p>
<p>The vampire froze, then asked, “Joseph?”</p>
<p>“He’s fine. We agreed to meet in a conference call with Rehema and possibly Russell,” she looked at her tablet, “ in six minutes.”</p>
<p>“Say what you know.”</p>
<p>Ten days before Alia had met Bartlett Crowe and Russell Edgington in Mississippi, and examined Bartlett’s day-men, the human Morris Pitt-Lewis and the werewolf Andrew Jones. What had transpired had been judged serious, detailed but contradictory. Andrew Jones did not showed deep traumas but a part of his mind revealed something peculiar, that Alia had labelled as <em>overwritten</em> or <em>patched</em>. When asked to explain better, the telepath had offered a comparison with an underlying disease guessed at only by minor symptoms but not through direct exams. The suggested condition was a sort of glamour (Alia promised to list the differences between this and ordinary glamour) that commanded the conscious mind of the subject to act in a certain way in specific circumstances.</p>
<p>“Hypnosis?” had suggested Karin.</p>
<p>The fae doubted but did not ruled out the chance of a deep conditioning carried that way. Yet, she found physical evidence of tampering with the were’s brain: two tiny holes in the scalp, behind his ears. The were, therefore, presented a level mind and confessed to have been paid by the king of Tennessee to help in the life attempt to his employer. At a deeper examination, though, he entered in an oneiric state in which he admitted to have dreamt to have sex with his boss, then killed him and drunk his blood. The telepath had reported that this dream-like state was very deep in his mind and showed very realistic contours, as if those circumstances had really happened. What was more, the were was not able to distinguish between reality and dream at that level of mind. At the end, Alia went so deep in the were’s mind that he lost any coherent behaviour and presented a sort of talking disorder, during which he confessed to have killed the king feeding him drugged blood. Andrew Jones died the following day: he hit the head to the wall, violently and repeatedly, till it cracked open and the ensuing haemorrhage ended his life.</p>
<p>Morris Pitt-Lewis, the human day-man, emerged as an ambitious employee who was jealous of his colleague and had planned to incapacitate the were to become the only trusted assistant to the king. He had tried, in vain, to sabotage his motorbike and poison his food. But Morris’ loyalty to Bartlett was unfaltering and bordering on veneration. The man, indeed, had planned to ask to be turned.</p>
<p>Alia had returned to New Orleans disturbed by what had emerged from the were’s mind, and determined to find a way to expose that kind of tampering without damaging the already addled brain of the subjects.</p>
<p>At the moment, though, Eric listened to his child’s summary of the event as Russell’s second-in-command had quickly reported.</p>
<p>“Bartlett was staying at Russell’s Crystal Springs house, south of Jackson: it’s one of their secret residences,” Karin spoke worriedly, “and Edgington had been late working in a nearby location. He found his husband… dead in their bed when he arrived this evening, almost two hours ago.”</p>
<p>“Culprits?”</p>
<p>“Aidan didn’t say anything, but the call was brief,” answered Karin. “He called to know if Alia could join them for the investigation.”</p>
<p>“Too dangerous, I don’t want her—”</p>
<p>“She already agreed,” interjected the vampiress.</p>
<p>“Karin!” he hissed angrily. “Why did you think to ask her? That female doesn’t know how to protect herself and I don’t want to risk her safety in our fucking shit…”</p>
<p>“I’m sorry, Eric, but she was with me when Aidan called and she answered directly to him.”</p>
<p>The vampire felt her fae coming close. “Come in, Alia,” he gestured toward the door and stood up striding across the room to intercept the fae entering the study. “Why did you accept without informing me?”</p>
<p>Alia glanced at Karin reproachfully, and said, “I was coming to tell you.”</p>
<p>“To tell, not asking if it were a good idea to go?”</p>
<p>“Eric, it’s an investigation,” protested Alia. “I always go to assist in witnessesexamination.”</p>
<p>“Before accepting you had to ask my advice,” his tone was cold and definitive. “Now we have a conference call with Texas, Alabama and Mississippi. At the end of it, you may reconsider what you want to do.”</p>
<p>Alia was about to reply heatedly when her end of the bond resonated withhis worry and fear.</p>
<p>“Sit next to Karin, please,” Eric added going back to his desk.</p>
<p>Latsis joined them shortly after and typed the last instructions on the keyboard of his tablet. The large screen on the wall switched on and the logo of the kingdom floated at its centre. The daemon informed, “Ten seconds to the connection to Alabama and Texas. The Regent will join in a few minutes.”</p>
<p>The screen split into four panes, reporting locations and time. Joseph Velasquez was the first to appear, flanked by his second-in-command Adua Nilsson and another vampire; Rehema Donnelly came into focus soon after, with her head of security, Cillian Byrne, at her side. The third pane opened over a desk with two empty seats. Finally, Arkansas regent filled the fourth pane, Maximilian Kainz standing behind her. All vampires stared at the vacant chairs of Mississippi’s office without a word.</p>
<p>Alia had assisted to many meetings and other forms of interactions among vampires and could not yet come to terms with their lack of social niceties when in work settings. Pamela had explained that those were not bad manners for rudeness sake. When the situation required their full attention, vampires entered a sort of concentration mode that occupied all their awareness and allowed them to focus on the minutiae of behaviours, places, sounds. It could be also considered a form of respect paid to the importance of the gathering or to the participants.</p>
<p>Russell Edgington and Aidan Harris occupied their seats silently. The king of Mississippi, his face blank and grave at the same time, acknowledged the presence of the others with the smallest nod.</p>
<p>“We cannot say that we had not see it coming,” started Russell forgetting his usual southern accent. It had been more a fancy brogue than a pronunciation requirement of his origin.</p>
<p>“I can only blame myself for what happened,” continued the read-head vampire. “I failed to protect my husband, the most precious lover, friend, ally I ever had. And I will bear the consequences on my soul, forever.”</p>
<p>The words were spoken without emotion, yet conveyed the deep desperation the vampire was experiencing.</p>
<p>“I will mourn my husband when I find his assassins, and lie them on his grave as flowers.”</p>
<p>After a lengthy silence, Eric said, “For what it’s worth, we all have become too complacent. Since our reveal to the human world, we have relied blindly on our superiority, physical and mental. This has been our major weakness, and we have paid many times over for it. The last twenty years, though, we have fallen again into this habit.”</p>
<p>“Indeed, the fact that we don’t know who is behind these attacks is proof of our vulnerability and myopia,” confirmed the black queen.</p>
<p>“Yes, we haven’t paid attention to details or, worse,” added Joseph, “we have no comprehensive view of what is happening. We didn’t share and we thought that what went on was confined to just one of us.”</p>
<p>“Like we did for the Fellowship of the Sun or the BSA degeneration,” concluded Pamela. “We are here now to stop it, whatever it takes.”</p>
<p>“We had a lead,” offered Eric cautiously. “But, probably, we didn’t investigate deeper enough…”</p>
<p>“The local branch of the Home Office?” asked Karin.</p>
<p>“Yes,” confirmed Eric. “As we saw for the weres involved in the skirmishes on our borders, or the one who helped to kill one of us, we are facing someone who can tamper with weres’ brains, both at physical and mental level. And, as Alia found out, it is a deep damage.”</p>
<p>“Home office? We have our vampires in there, haven’t we?” asked Russell.</p>
<p>“Yes, but we are not telepathic and if weres are involved we—”</p>
<p>“The army!” interjected Alia. “If only humans and weres are involved that is the place where it all happens: no vampire is allowed in their ranks…”</p>
<p>“… and we have only advisors and counsellors to big brass, but nothing at the base,” concluded Russell.</p>
<p>“That’s why only unaffiliated weres seemed to be part of it,” continued the telepath. “Hunter found only some haters among the human personnel of the offices he inspected. Nothing relevant. But, maybe, we were not looking into the right part of those offices… I should go there myself.”</p>
<p>Eric turned to face her and said, “We’ll see what is better to do, lover.”</p>
<p>“Sure, we need a strategy,” added Rehema with a more relaxed tone, “and, above all, we cannot risk anyone’s life. We have already lost too many.”</p>
<p>Russell nodded. “Aidan asked lady Alia’s help to figure out how Bart has been killed, but I understand that we need to plan a better way to introduce her. Maybe, the betrothed couple can come in in an official visit…”</p>
<p>“We may arrange something like that, Russell,” convened Eric.</p>
<p>“We have also to determine the opportunity to confirm our inter-clan summit next month,” said Pamela.</p>
<p>“I think we need to hold it more than ever,” replied Joseph. “We need to extend the collaboration among us…”</p>
<p>“I agree,” concurred Russell, “and we need also to see who, among us, could be—”</p>
<p>The vampire stopped as his second-in-command’s tablet rang, along those of Karin the Slaughterer, Adua Nilsson and Maximilian Kainz. Alia turned to Eric with a questioning look and his hand slid over hers. The vampire’s end of the bond reflected his deep concentration and the fae could not pick up any relevant feeling, if not the normal background of low level turmoil.</p>
<p>All vampires listened briefly and closed their calls in a few seconds, resuming their attention to each other without a word. But as Eric had heard the caller’s words from the earplugs Karin was wearing, Alia had felt a surge of irritation in their bond.</p>
<p>It was Russell who spoke. “Rehema, you already knew?”</p>
<p>“Adrianne just sent me a message a few seconds before your calls, no details if not the fact that, probably, it happened a few days ago already. Or more. With Nevada we can never say.”</p>
<p>“Nevada died,” Karin said for Alia’s benefit.</p>
<p>“Killed or…?” the fae asked.</p>
<p>Pamela, on the screen, had lost her blank countenance to show discontent in the form of her mouth, pursed and turned down. “A lot of people would have killed that dickhead. Everyone present, for instance.”</p>
<p>“But none of us did, lady Alia,” informed Rehema. “That vampire was not worth too much to spend our time and money on him.”</p>
<p>“He lived the last forty years holed up in his country,” Karin whispered to Alia’s ear.</p>
<p>“But it is important to know what happened. Had a vampire killed Nevada, we could rule out the threat we’re facing here, otherwise…” Alia glanced through all panes on the screen to see the vampires’ reactions. Their faces, though, did not betray any thought.</p>
<p>“True,” agreed Russell after some minutes, followed by a general nodding.</p>
<p>A wave of pride came from Eric through the bond, while his face remained blank and fixed on the screen. At that moment a chime on Karin’s tablet interrupted all further consideration.</p>
<p>Karin waved a hand over the device, then spoke. “I sent you all the message just arrived from Wyoming: Felipe’s second seized power and officially accused Tennessee and Louisiana of the assassination and takeover attempt, filing for damage claims.”</p>
<p>The silence was interrupted by a dry laugh from Adua Nilsson, Texas’ second and lover. “That dickhead of Nevada has a suitable successor, it seems.”</p>
<p>“Anyone knows Juan José Solis Mena personally?” asked Eric.</p>
<p>“He’s young and aggressive, but Wyoming says he’s not stupid nor vain,” Rehema offered. “I met him only once, forty one years ago. Irrelevant, as far as I was concerned. He was silent all the time, behind Nevada.”</p>
<p>“Then, maybe it’s a message,” Alia said, still pondering the idea.</p>
<p>The vampires turned their eyes and vacant faces to the fae, waiting.</p>
<p>Before long Rehema asked, “Which kind of message, and for whom?” </p>
<p>“It’s just a thought: you said the murder happened a few days ago, therefore his people have had the time to do a little investigation… maybe the were/human who killed Nevada confessed the same things yours confessed, but this Mena doesn’t believe it all, or suspects someone different were behind it,” Alia spoke building her idea along with the words. “Therefore decides to file a ridiculous accusation knowing that no one will believe it, just to make sure who really killed the king thinks to be out of the radar, at the same time letting vampires know of a plot against vampires.” She paused, then added, “Too far-fetched?”</p>
<p>“Yes and no,” replied Adua Nilsson in a few seconds. “I don’t know Juanjo personally, but heard a lot of stories. Colorado and Wyoming know him. We have to make a few calls…”</p>
<p>“It’s the second time my name is spoken in correspondence of a murder. In the case of Nevada it doesn’t bother me, but I wouldn’t like a friend doubting the least,” Eric spoke with a low, calm voice. “Russell, if Alia agrees, I offer you my blood to let you ascertain that I have nothing to do with Bartlett’s death. Alia?”</p>
<p>The fae glanced at Eric and felt his calmness, then turned to the king of Mississippi and nodded. Karin and Pamela stilled their faces some more, Alia noted, and so did Rehema.</p>
<p>Russell smiled sadly. “Thank you, my friend. But I never doubted you, so there’s no need to accept your blood. Thank you to you either, lady Alia.”</p>
<p>They were silent for a while.</p>
<p>“Coming to your suggestion, lady Alia,” Russell resumed his speaking, “neither I know Juanjo very much, but your idea implies some very good intelligence on his side. He should know something very dangerous to all of us to be willing to share it with… everybody.”</p>
<p>“Maybe he does.”</p>
<p>“Indeed,” added Eric, “it would be quite unlikely to name the same suspects of Bartlett’s assassination. It’s worth a try, I think.”</p>
<p>“I’ll talk to Adrianne, then,” concluded Rehema.</p>
<p>The vampires discussed some more about the upcoming summit and the ensuing security issues. The conference ended with an adjournment in a few days, or before if the case arose, and with the accord among lieutenants to concert the several actions needed in the following days. </p>
<p>Alia noticed how everyone had not mentioned Bartlett Crowe, not paid his respects to his memory in any way. She reminded the fae habit not to mention their dead or those who were not present (and probably risking their life), and wondered if there was a common rationale under the similar behaviour.</p>
<p>Though, she felt it less weird than the first time she had noticed it. Indeed, what was there to say about a loved one who had gone? She could not think of anything soothing. Her parents, her granny, Claudine. The pain had receded but was there nonetheless. Vampires and fairies had only more time to feel it and it was just a compassionate gesture not to speak of them.</p>
<p>After all, it was what she had done instinctively: she had sealed her dead ones in a little corner of her mind, and preferred not to visit it. </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0043"><h2>43. Chapter 43</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>During the month before the summit Eric and Alia had visited Russell Edgington in Jackson. The read-headed vampire had appeared uncharacteristically subdued, the fae noted. His lieutenant, Aidan Harris, had assumed the role of Regent of Indiana, whereas the late king’s second had moved to Mississippi. This latter had a bulky frame, a gentle face and a stupid name. Florian Griffith. He was a Restoration era English vampire and had spent long hours discussing with Eric and Russell.</p>
<p>Alia had questioned some weres assigned to the late king’s personal guard and read a few vampires from his retinue. The picture that surfaced was not comforting. Two weres showed the same addled brains of those questioned at home and in Texas, Alabama, Mississippi. Grim violence, of sexual and non-sexual nature, had wrapped fake and uncertain memories in their minds. Among those, the king of Tennessee and, alternatively Arkansas or Louisiana, had emerged as instigators of various crimes. The trouble began when the fae read some vampires, notably the one responsible for coordinating Indiana and Mississippi guards and a donors’ procurator. Actually, both had hidden ties with Tennessee. In the case of the local guards coordinator, he was resisting an attempted bribery. The procurator, though, seemed to have given some intelligence to the neighbouring kingdom. Thus, considering that Bartlett Crowe had been poisoned to death with a silvery drug injected into his blood stream, it was enough to arrest and question him.</p>
<p>Obviously, Alia had masked that finding reporting it had been a were to give the clue. The procurator had been tortured. Alia had heard his fear, guilt, half confession, and then his long agony before death. Tennessee had blackmailed him for embezzlement of the donors’ fund he managed. Yet, the procurator had not activelyparticipated in Indiana’s assassination, and she could not say if his intelligence had been relevant for it.</p>
<p>“Russell, I offer my blood again,” Eric said solemnly. “I wouldn’t like you doubting my loyalty in any way.”</p>
<p>“I don’t,” replied the other vampire tiredly.</p>
<p>“Though, what Alia reported is serious,” he gestured toward the fae. “Since my name has been linked to that of Tennessee more than once, I think someone is trying to frame me.”</p>
<p>They were in Russell’s study, in the same residence Indiana had been assassinated. The vampire’s mood was giddy and unpredictable. Alia was sitting beside Eric, facing their host and Florian Griffith. She was finding hard to read the king of Mississippi since he had lost his husband. His mind, in fact, appeared constantly, in turn, revved up or choked: at times crowded withseething thoughts or utterly void.</p>
<p>“I think we face two different threats,” started Florian after a prolonged silence. “One posed by the weres and, maybe, humans working together. And another one coming from vampires.”</p>
<p>“Humans are surely involved. Only they would refer to Eric’s kingdom as two different countries, Louisiana and Arkansas,” added Alia. “To all supernaturals it’d be Great Louisiana.”</p>
<p>“Exactly,” agreed Florian. His voice was low and warm, at odds with his sturdy body. “And, in fact, your vampire,” he nodded to Russell, “spoke only of Tennessee.”</p>
<p>“Or they could be all linked,” proposed Eric, “each with a certain leeway to carry on threats from different sides.”</p>
<p>Florian stood beside the mantelpiece, smoking his centuries-old pipe. The sweet smell of tobacco wafted around him. “Possible. At any rate, we’ll investigate both leads.”</p>
<p>“Russell,” Eric said, then stopped. His hand palm up as if waiting his decision.</p>
<p>The vampire acknowledged his gesture but shook his head. “I remember how long we had to prod you into overtaking your kingdom. And we watched you closely over the years. No doubt ever crossed my mind, nor Bart’s.”</p>
<p>Florian, too, shook his head and exhaled a lungful of smoke.</p>
<p>They remained silent for a long time, then Russell asked, “Have you already invited Tennessee to the meeting?”</p>
<p>“Yes. Pamela did, but we had no answer yet.”</p>
<p>“Who else will be there?” inquired Florian.</p>
<p>“Beyond us all,” said Eric with a gesture encompassing present and distant allies, “there should be Colorado, Missouri, Tennessee and Great Nebraska.”</p>
<p>Florian smiled. “You like it tangy and lively. Have you already answered to Missouri’s proposal?”</p>
<p>“Weeks ago. Karin opened negotiation rejecting the marriage and offering commercial and economical agreements. The Russian… dragged the talkings for a while, but had never intention to accept.”</p>
<p>“Do you think he expected a rejection?”</p>
<p>Eric watched Florian carefully. “Let’s say that he would have been very surprised, and embarrassed, by an acceptance of his proposal. He would have asked unacceptable terms for the contract. His aim, according to my negotiator, was to test our entente.”</p>
<p>“Bart thought Dima was biding his time, and Great Nebraska proposing to him was a very risky move on her part,” said Russell.</p>
<p>“Nebraska is daring out of necessity,” stated Florian caressing his pipe, “if she gets out of this impasse still in one piece… we can consider to invite her for a tea.”</p>
<p>Russell nodded. “It’s up to you, Flo. But if you think to co-opt her, you should offer her a helping hand.”</p>
<p>“Bart already did,” the vampire replied with a smile.</p>
<p>Russell frowned. “How is it that I knew nothing of it?”</p>
<p>“It was meant as a gift Bart wanted to present you with… for your anniversary: a new ally in Zeus clan to tip the balance in your favour for the next summit.”</p>
<p>Eric smiled, but his face did not move a muscle. Zeus and Amun clans were working for the election of a single representative to overcome the influence of the powerful East coast clan. It was a long time project of Bartlett helping his husband to be that delegate.</p>
<p>Russell did not reply, but Alia felt an acute pang of desperation coming from him. It was just a moment as he damped it down at once.</p>
<p>“And you, lady Alia,” Florian turned his gaze to her. “Did you inform Colorado about your marriage plans?”</p>
<p>“Of course I did.”</p>
<p>“Then, we’ll see some action at our meeting. You two together,” and Florian pointed his pipe toward them, “are bound to make history.”</p>
<p>Eric and Alia smiled politely, and she said, “Story would be enough for us.”</p>
<p>Both sent calmness to each other through the bond. Then Eric added, “But we will make history, if necessary.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Alia, I felt it. Care to explain?” said Eric as they were alone in their rooms. Russell had reserved for them a large apartment in a private wing of his main residence. Its furnishings were too baroque to his taste, with heavy fabric and golden frames, plush rugs over dark herringbone timber, ancient monarchs portraits and fresh floral arrangements on every horizontal surface. The perfect mix to grow a headache, had a vampire been able to somatise his unease, or a sense of excess.</p>
<p>The fae shook her head and took off her jacket. “I’m just tired,” she said dismissively. “So manythings all at once.”</p>
<p>Eric hugged her from behind and kissed her hair. “Let’s relax, then. A bath?”</p>
<p>It was almost dawn and he felt a weariness that was not his. Hers, therefore. She turned and curled up around his body. Her hands behind his neck pulling him down, her mouth on his ear, whispering. He smiled, until her words registered. “Is this place safe for speaking?”</p>
<p>“Both Bob Rock and Roxanne have checked our apartment,” said Eric aloud. “Our rooms are secure and screened. I won’t lower our security measures till the weres problem is solved or your safety is granted. Niall’s word is not a hard currency with me.”</p>
<p>“What if there’s something worse at play here?” Alia started tightening her embrace.</p>
<p>Eric sighed and lowered himself on a plush red sofa with golden curled feet. Alia clung to him with a pained expression.</p>
<p>“Speak.”</p>
<p>“I’m not sure, Eric,” started Alia. “It’s not useful to accuse someone only to discover later that I misunderstood something.”</p>
<p>“You’re worried, and tired,” he said. “Let’s share the burden.”</p>
<p>“I don’t want to influence you. Maybe, it’s just… I don’t know if I got it right.”</p>
<p>Eric frowned. “You’re already influencing me, obviously. I felt your uneasiness, worry. And I know who made you feel so.” He caressed her back in slow moves, up and down. She stretched her back, sagged her shoulders and cracked her neck sideways.</p>
<p>“So, what do you know about him?” she asked after a while.</p>
<p>“Griffith?” he asked. “Not much, indeed. I met him as Bartlett’s second since he became king. They’ve been turned around the same time, I guess. They both come from the second half of the seventeenth century, England. Bartlett was very fond of him and spoke highly of him.”</p>
<p>“And what about his relationship with Russell?” asked Alia.</p>
<p>“Nothing,” replied Eric. “I know nothing. After their marriage, Bartlett and Russell have been very close. Even jealous. Griffith stayed mostly in Indiana or was sent as diplomatic agent to several clan meeting and the like.”</p>
<p>“What’s wrong about being jealous? They were a couple, it’s not strange.”</p>
<p>“Vampires are not jealous, we are territorial and possessive,” said Eric. “It’s different.”</p>
<p>“Ah, different choice of words but the same behaviour,” Alia snapped.</p>
<p>“Is that what you read in Griffith? That he was jealous?”</p>
<p>Alia narrowed her eyes. “You are jealous.”</p>
<p>“I’m not jealous. You are mine.”</p>
<p>“He is jealous now.”</p>
<p>Eric stilled his hands on her back.</p>
<p>“Griffith is jealous now,” repeated Alia. “Jealous of Russell. He doesn’t like when you speak to him, when Russell doesn’t pay attention to him.” She paused. “Or when I discussed with Russell what I read in his or Bartlett’s underlings.”</p>
<p>Eric resumed his ministrations on her hips. “What else?”</p>
<p>“I don’t read him. Just feel his emotions. They’re strong, deep.”</p>
<p>“There’s a but, isn’t it?”</p>
<p>“Mmm,” she murmured leaning on his hands. “He has none when the subject is Bartlett and his untimely departure.”</p>
<p>Eric began to untie the laces her dress had at the back. “Are you implying something?”</p>
<p>“It’s a possibility,” she replied. And began to unbutton his shirt. “And when he suggested where to look to for likely culprits I felt… let’s say a lack of commitment.”</p>
<p>He fumbled with her dress. “Aren’t finished those laces? What…?”</p>
<p>“A bra. It’s embedded in the dress.” She was unbuckling his belt and added hastily, “Don’t tear it.”</p>
<p>“Ah, here.” The brassiere gave way and his hands freed her shoulders and breasts. “It’s better not to say anything to Russell. It’s too… uncertain.”</p>
<p>“Mmm, yes.”</p>
<p>“We were talking about a bath, right?”</p>
<p>“Bath…mmm,” she mumbled.</p>
<p>Eric smiled feeling her muscles relaxing under his hands. Then her head leant on his shoulders and she let out a faint snoring. The vampire stood up, holding her body flush up against his, and took her to their bedroom.</p>
<p>At the end of the night, sleeping with her was what gave him strength and purpose. Therefore, he laid down at her side and inhaled her scent. When she slept, she released a faint, warm essence. It was his personal sleep fragrance. Cinnamon. Or vanilla. His. As everything about her.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>At the end Pamela chose Baton Rouge as location for the meeting, this latter informally dubbed <em>the Concert </em>in her personal papers. It would last five nights, of which three completely dedicated to talkings and conferences, two for welcoming and ending.</p>
<p>A dae company was to supervise the organisation of the event, included the first layer of security. The venue, therefore, was a dae-fae owned resort on the Mississippi River some fifty kilometres southwest of Baton Rouge. A huge old mansion completely renovated fifteen years earlier with modern, invisible technology. Thus, it left guests the illusion to be walking into a nineteenth century plantation villa. Even the personnel, both daemon and vampire, wore epoch costumes to keep up a consistent fantasy.</p>
<p>Pamela was thrilled. Roxanne Hayes much less so.</p>
<p>“Do not think that I have not considered security details,” said Pamela waving a hand over her tablet. “The park around the mansion is three times the extension it used to be fifteen years ago, and it includes several minor buildings to host soldiers and all the equipment you intend to deploy: drones, ‘copters, ground and air defences of any level and amount.” Her mocking tone fell flat on the other vampiress’ ears.</p>
<p>“I’m not satisfied, nor is Ford,” grunted the head of security, eyes fixed on her personal terminal.</p>
<p>“That old were! He’s never been satisfied a single day in his life,” Pamela dismissed the argument with a shrug. “And you spend too much time with him, it shows.”</p>
<p>“The fact that he is my deputy, charged of daytime security means something.”</p>
<p>“Yes, that you two share fleas,” blurted out Pamela with a smile. “I don’t understand why Xeres has not yet taken his place. She’s far more… interesting.”</p>
<p>“When Ford decides it’s Xeres’, or Rock’s time, she or he will.”</p>
<p>“If he is so irreplaceable, why don’t we turn him?”</p>
<p>“He never expressed the desire.”</p>
<p>“But I heard he takes vampire blood from time to time,” said Pamela, “and, in fact, he shows little damage for his age, almost seventy years, uh?”</p>
<p>“Aren’t you too interested in my second?” inquired Roxanne.</p>
<p>“Of course I am: he is my maker’s head of security in the daytime,” snapped the vampiress. “And Eric likes him very much. They still spar and play with those tech games for boils marred teens.”</p>
<p>“Those are not tech games: they are state of the art equipment for grown up soldiers. Training in electronic warfare, Regent.” The head of security did not mask her ambivalent feelings for the other vampiress. “Nevertheless, maybe he will reconsider. He took a vampire lover recently.”</p>
<p>“Wise of him.” </p>
<p>“We have to house almost a hundred guards,” continued Roxanna scrolling data sheets on her terminal.</p>
<p>“I thought our guards had their own housing, we’ll be very close to New Orleans after all.”</p>
<p>“Half our guards will stay in the plantation premises, the rest will commute from their barracks. But we need to lodge inside part of the other monarchs’ guards as well.”</p>
<p>“These two large outbuildings will do, I think,” Pamela enlarged a map of the ground surrounding the nineteenth century villa, on the northern border. “The other four annexes are for kings entourages.”</p>
<p>“Consider to leave a room for lady Alia and her assistants in each structure: she needs a reserved place to stay when inspecting people. Close to the donors’ rooms, she asked.”</p>
<p>Since six weeks Alia had began to check guards and civilian personnel entering the royal palace in any capacity. Every few days and randomly. She had also instructed Hunter and Horowitz on how to carry on their readings, what to look for, how to cross check each other’s suspects. Indiana and Nevada’s death had sent her in a feverish research of any possible hole in her vampire’s protective structure. Pamela was delighted. Karin was worried for the pressure the fae had put on Hunter’s shoulders.</p>
<p>“Fine. But don’t forget Alia is a target herself. She must be surrounded by two vampires or two weres any time—”</p>
<p>“And you, Regent, don’t forget that it’s me in charge of the royal persons. Lady Alia is taken care of every single minute.”</p>
<p>“Good. Who’s in charge of setting consistent audio-video countermeasures?”</p>
<p>“That is Ford’s, and his team of geeks, realm. He will detail his requirements to you later on.”</p>
<p>It had gone on like that for weeks on end, till the beginning of <em>the Concert</em>.</p>
<p>The pressure mounted as the day approached and everyone, charged of a bit of organisation or simply waiting the meeting to start to be actively involved, became touchy and obsessed by details.</p>
<p>Therefore, it was not a surprise when Leonard Barry Aaron Horowitz lost it.</p>
<p>Alia had piled up a large burden over his shoulders, and the circumstance that he had to withstand the constant presence of vampires aggravated his already shaky temper. The explosion happened when he was reading an aspiring donor for the royal pool, expressly selected for <em>the Concert</em> event. </p>
<p>Leonard, as he reported afterward, was administering a test (<em>Loyalty/Unfaithfulness, </em>model by dr Chandrasekhara J Kalam) to bring the subject’s mind to certain topics of interest. The woman, a plump thirty two years old, remembered vividly the evening when she had been bitten and raped by a vampire. The telepath recognised the vampire and went totally ballistic for a couple of days, breaking some furniture and yelling at every vampire in sight. Alia had to insert soothing commands in his mind, after discovering he was terrified at the idea of being bitten himself.</p>
<p>This incident caused a rearrangement of the telepaths schedule and discontent among some vampires. Indeed, being called blood-sucker, leech, parasite or monster could easily elicit such a reaction.</p>
<p>Then it was Alia’s turn.</p>
<p>It was almost dawn and she waited for Eric in his study, at the royal palace. They rarely spent the day there, preferring to rest at his residence in the Lake des Allemands. No one, though, knew of that house or where the king retired for the day. That night Eric had sent a message telling her he was late and that, probably, they would sleep there. Therefore, the fae waited for him dozing on the sofa when someone came inside. Alia opened her eyes and saw a woman, a slender brunette in elegant attire, sitting awkwardly on a stool beside an ancient bookcase. Alia waited until her eyes adjusted to the dim light filtering from the windows, then asked, “What are you doing here?”</p>
<p>The woman almost jumped on the stool, and answered in a shaky voice, “I am waiting for the king.”</p>
<p>Alia’s reaction was immediate. An acrid pang of jealousy tightened her lower belly. It struck so hard, suddenly, that no rational thought had the chance to kick in before she asked, “Why?”</p>
<p>“He called for a donor, and I… I… was told to wait here.”</p>
<p>Had the fae considered the fact in a sound mind, she would have seen the lie right away, but she was tired and worried. She did not even think to read the human to confirm her claim. Weary, indeed.</p>
<p>Eric arrived while Alia was in the middle of a nervous crisis, yelling at the woman and threatening to rip her throat open. The vampire had already been feeling a strong distress in their bond, and sent calmness through it. “Lover, what did she do to you?”</p>
<p>Alia turned to him keeping the knife on the woman’s neck. “If you need feeding, why didn’t you ask me?” It sounded like the whine it was, and the fae hated it at once.</p>
<p>“I don’t,” Eric answered hugging her from behind, “who is she and what does she do here?”</p>
<p>Now, both watched the woman and she thought it right to yell terrified.</p>
<p>Two guards bursted into the study with lasguns drawn and in a few minutes the situation was clear. It seemed that someone had called a donor for a security guy and the woman had mistakenly understood it were a king’s request. Eric dismissed all and took Alia to his apartments for the day.</p>
<p>But Alia could not sleep. As soon as she calmed down her brain reprocessed the event and something the woman had said did not add up. It was mid-morning when she left the royal quarters to look for the woman.</p>
<p>The meeting was less than a week away and the donors cleared for <em>the Concert</em> were being held in house, without external contacts. Alia found the woman in one of the donors sitting rooms. The fae delved in her mind without finesse, gripped by ominous fantasies. And she found more than expected.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Breath slowly, lover,” said Eric rocking the fae in his arms. “Repeatfrom the beginning and remember that everything is fine and good.”</p>
<p>They had flown to the Lake des Allemands residence as soon as the sun had gone down, and were now on the western dock. The air was pleasantly warm and wet. The external sounds muffled.</p>
<p>“That woman,” started again Alia after a long exhale, “she wanted to know about you. Anything. Feeding behaviours, residence, security details, habits, lovers.”</p>
<p>“Carry on.”</p>
<p>“She’s got a boyfriend. A soldier, sergeant I think, stationed at Camp Beauregard,” her voice wavered.</p>
<p>“In Alexandria,” he said.</p>
<p>“He told her a lot of things. They do special training, at the Camp I mean.”</p>
<p>“I’ll ask the packmaster of the area. Probably some of his weres—”</p>
<p>“Not a good idea,” said Alia shaking her head. “The woman mentioned something about the weres being used… not clear, though. Maybe her man told nonsense, I don’t know.”</p>
<p>“And he had charged her to investigate about me?”</p>
<p>“No, no,” said Alia hastily, “it seems she wanted to impress him. Giving him all info she could gain working here. As a surprise.”</p>
<p>“Not much, then.”</p>
<p>“Don’t say so, Eric,” snapped Alia, “Bartlett was not stupid, and neither Nevada. As much as I hated him, he survived centuries among threats. Do not think to be beyond their reach, whoever they are.”</p>
<p>“That’s not what I meant, lover. I spent centuries as enforcer, military advisor, head of security. I don’t simply rely on my underlings. I check everything. And my children studied at my school.”</p>
<p>“What if had you fed from her?”</p>
<p>“Since we agreed to get married, I only feed from you,” said the vampire. “Before that, I’ve always been careful not to fall in any routine. Not twice in a row with the same donor, never speak to them, never take them with me when traveling. Blood bags in that case.”</p>
<p>Alia nodded.</p>
<p>“As for my security, I have a few trusty individuals who served me for longtime. Proving their worthiness time and again. You read them yourself.”</p>
<p>She nodded again. Now that she was home, with him in her arms, everything had a different colour. His words were soothing and his assuredness too. Yet nothing could erase completely the fear she had felt.</p>
<p><em>The Concert</em> was to start in a few days and Alia could not stretch her already thin team to investigate further at the military base the woman had mentioned. Therefore she focused on the problems at hand, clearing all personnel involvedwith the meeting at whatever level. Humans, weres, daemons, vampires. Again and again. Hunter had trained strenuously with Alia for a few months now, and had ended up reading weres. It was not a deep scan, but enough to identify current threats.</p>
<p>The day the king of Great Louisiana greeted his guests at the Nottoway Resort in Baton Rouge, Alia was at his side as fiancée. They had just signed the prenuptial agreement a few days earlier but had no set a date for the ceremony.</p>
<p>The welcoming party was held in the Cypress ballroom, and only monarchs and their closest underlings had been invited.</p>
<p>Russell Edgington, king of Mississippi and Indiana, presented Florian Griffith as his second-in-command and designated heir. The read-headed vampire appeared cool and collected, and this time the fae easily accessed his mind. Thus she got to know that Florian was Bartlett’s brother and that he was expected to take both kingdoms as soon as Russell stepped down from his position. However, Alia was not sure to have read it correctly.</p>
<p>Joseph Velasquez and Adua Nilsson, along with Rehema Donnelly and Cillian Byrne, were introduced as official companions. Both couples kept a low profile but their connections did not go unnoticed.</p>
<p>The queen Adrianne Bakkali was expected for the following day and Andreas Klingemann, her former lieutenant appointed king of Oklahoma at Freyda’s demise, offered her greetings and congratulations to the hosts. Rumours wentaround that the tall, muscular vampire was an hermaphrodite. Alia had already met him a few times, but now it was the first time since her reading included vampires. She smiled thinly as the vampire performed a perfect kiss on the hand, and was taken aback by the strong feelings of lust his mind projected. His words measured, his countenance inscrutable, his body stance relaxed. Klingemann gave little, if anything, away. His light brown eyes, though, smiled mischievously at her reaction. And his mind was a blur of colours and sensations, but nothing to read. Alia disliked the vampire at once, and reminded herself that everyone was there to take something home. Nothing, therefore, was casual.</p>
<p>Eric felt the fae’s irritation and turned to her. She dismissed his silent question with a shrug and faced the next guest.</p>
<p>Dmitri Smirnov, king of Missouri, was compact and tense. His facial features showed his slavic origin in the deep set eyes, crooked nose and lack of lips. And his rosy complexion was at odds with his vampire nature.</p>
<p>“Lady Alia,” said Smirnov solemnly, “please, call me Dima. I lost a husband to you and this makes us… closer than it seems, as we share the same tastes.”</p>
<p>“Dima, then. We partake of those… tastes with females of all ages and a good share of males. I’m afraid, therefore, we share this closeness with a crowd.” Alia was displeased to discover she could not read the vampire, and sighed noisily at his affectation.</p>
<p>Great Nebraska and New Mexico, this latter in the person of Nantan, still pretending to be his king’s second, followed briefly, and then Tennessee entered the ballroom, parading in front of them with a clattering suite of courtiers.</p>
<p>“None other than a fairy could steal a husband from a powerful queen,” declared the king addressing at once his entourage and Alabama. “Lady Brigant,” he turned to the fae with a swirl, “it’s a pleasure to meet you after all the rumours.”</p>
<p>Alia watched the vampire and tried not to falter under the terror his mind propelled around him. Waves upon waves of unadulterated panic. His mind was so drenched in it Alia could not pinpoint a coherent thought. She wondered how the vampire could manage to speak.</p>
<p>“Tennessee,” chirped Rehema pinning the vampire with a cold gaze. “I expected you did your homework before coming here. Lady Alia is Eric’s first wife.”</p>
<p>Tennessee, a thin, nervous build dressed with epoch costumes to match the antebellum mansion’s historical make-up, seemed to lose his affected coolness. Then a courtier of his retinue, knowing everybody would hear perfectly, whispered to his ear, “Your majesty, teasing a queen before she falls is not elegant.”</p>
<p>Another member of his clique added, “And fairies are touchy! Better not continuing this joke.”</p>
<p>Alia watched the vampire with an annoyed look. “Tennessee, I don’t know what kind of rumours you heard, but I’m sure they’re ridiculous if you found the courage to come to our house and insult a member of our family.” Then she added, “And it’s true we fairies are touchy. Very.”</p>
<p>Then Smirnov came to the rescue of the speechless king. “Lady Alia, I think Tennessee meets today the first fairy of his entire life. Try to be lenient.”</p>
<p>“Then he is lucky. I am the sweetest fae around,” said Alia forcefully pushing to Tennessee’s mind her true fighting form. He recoiled instinctively, losing the thin exterior mask of quietness, and the fae saw through his panicked haze: the Russian vampire loomed large in his mind, occupying every corner of conscious thinking.</p>
<p>“And to prove it, may I have the second dance with you?” </p>
<p>At her side Eric stilled, but she sent calmness leaning to him.</p>
<p>It was Smirnov to answer. “Tennessee would be delighted, lady Alia.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0044"><h2>44. Chapter 44</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>It was dawn on the fourth day of <em>the Concert</em>.</p>
<p>As every night, at the end of conferences, round table talks, informal meetings or chance encounters in between any of them, Alia had to explain to Eric why she had acted the way she had with that or this vampire. </p>
<p>“My love,” she started paving the way to an unpleasant conversation, “I’ve already explained that. I hear a thought or feel a feeling or whatever, and I react immediately in the way I think it’s more… productive for the situation.”</p>
<p>“Explain once again how being flirtatious is beneficial to your… investigations.”</p>
<p>Alia was tired and wanted to have sex with her vampire. Then sleep until afternoon. Many surprises had dotted the event, and she needed time to process everything. Only after that she could share all her findings with Eric, Rehema, Karin, and see what was valuable and what not.</p>
<p>“It’s a matter of deciding which is the fastest way to reach my goal,” said the fae taking off the bathrobe before slipping under the sheets. “Our goal, that is.” Her hair was still wet after the shower and Eric began to dry it with a towel. “If I notice that one is… friendly to me, I exploit this feeling to my end. That’s all.”</p>
<p>“Someone may be led to think that you’re available.”</p>
<p>“Let them think whatever they want, as long as they don’t notice my browsing in their mind,” snapped Alia. “You do that all the time, and if it’s a way to gain an advantage, it’s fine to me.”</p>
<p>“Explain again what did you gain from your… flirtation with Colorado yesterday night.”</p>
<p>“Ugh! It’s not flirtation, it’s called <em>charming</em> someone, if you want to know.” Alia could not understand all the fuss Eric was doing, when he could check the bond (albeit not fully formed it was already a good meter of each one’s feelings). “Xu was trying to have a drop of my blood before the marriage, and I had the chance to sieve through his fucking thoughts and see a lot of things.”</p>
<p>“I should end that leech.”</p>
<p>Alia pushed the vampire to the mattress and straddled him. “My love, you know I don’t desire him and he didn’t touch me. He knows that you’d kill him if he tries to touch me without my consent, and that after the marriage no one could approach us without risking a fucking blood offence. But above all, I want you and only you. You should feel it very well by now.”</p>
<p>“Mmm. And what things you discovered…”</p>
<p>“When I was on<em> EOne</em> helping to discover who meddled in his multi-billion contract, he ended up killing one of his counsellors, I already told you. Yet, what I had found with two glamoured humans didn’t add up, I thought.”</p>
<p>Eric turned over her and covered them with a sheet. “Carry on.”</p>
<p>“Yesterday, I understood. Those humans had been glamoured in different situations for unrelated occurrences. But the woman had witnessed an encounter between the man, that counsellor and another vampire, called the Biker.”</p>
<p>“Juanjo the Biker. He was Nevada’s second, and now is the king.”</p>
<p>“Uh. I didn’t know it at that time. I’d seen his face in the man’s mind and described it to Xu: dark eyes and hair, tanned, partially pockmarked on the right side. When his counsellor entered the module Colorado killed him because he hadn’t authorised any meeting with this Biker, and the fact that the man had been glamoured meant that it was something behind his back.”</p>
<p>“Stupid. He killed his underling without extracting further information.”</p>
<p>“Maybe he had already suspicions or other evidence and needed the last piece of the puzzle.”</p>
<p>“Mmm, what else?”</p>
<p>“The vampire he killed was indeed plotting with the Biker, and framing you for the breech of the contract as per Nevada’s request. It was one of many wrong doings they wanted to leave at your doorstep in case you achieved too high a position in Amun clan, or something like that. Further, Xu has a lot of other… fake intelligence against you and other monarchs to use if and when he needs it.”</p>
<p>“Anything more detailed?”</p>
<p>“Some. I already recorded what I grasped and sent it to you and Karin,” she said caressing his back. “Nothing to bother you with now.”</p>
<p>“And what about Missouri, Tennessee? You spent a lot of time with them these past days.”</p>
<p>“And you should reward me greatly, you know,” said the fae lifting her hips under his body. “I discovered many, many things.”</p>
<p>“Tell me. I had not time to read your reports.”</p>
<p>“Ugh. I don’t like this business conversation in my bed.”</p>
<p>“Just main points, fae.”</p>
<p>“I don’t read Smirnov, but when he’s close to Tennessee, this one freaks out… and thinks a lot of things. What’s his name, by the way, I can’t remember it.”</p>
<p>“I noticed, it’s the fifth time you ask. Hayden.”</p>
<p>“Well, maybe because everybody calls him <em>always</em> just Tennessee!” She complained. “Hayden, this time I’ll remember it.”</p>
<p>“So?”</p>
<p>“He’s terrified by Smirnov and does whatever he asks. Therefore, Tennessee helped Colorado to frame you in many ways: things they keep up their sleeves to unleash in case of need. Against you and Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, Indiana, Nevada… the list is long, I guess most kingdoms.”</p>
<p>“Anything precise?”</p>
<p>“Little bits. I haven’t dived deeply into his mind. He’s already too addled to risk damaging him, or mistaking a wish for the real thing.” Then, she added, “Ah, Tennessee owes to Nevada, and did things for him… I didn’t see what, exactly.”</p>
<p>The vampire began to smell and kiss her neck. “Missouri’s motives?”</p>
<p>“Tennessee, in one of his rare moments of peace, thought that he’s working for someone else. He often travels to New York and the East Coast. But the real gold is somewhere else, and it’s been my understanding. What would you pay for that?”</p>
<p>“East Coast? That’s it, then.” Eric lifted his head and smiled. “Just for this bit you’ll have my undying gratitude.”</p>
<p>“Something more tangible?”</p>
<p>“Lover, aren’t you deeply satisfied to help your husband? To do your share to help keeping our kingdom alive? To—”</p>
<p>“Fuck you, my love. I think you’re abusing my mind to your ends and want to marry me just for it,” the fae continued fondling him, just more dedicated.</p>
<p>“Firstly,<em> you</em> proposed, and secondly, <em>of course</em>. What else?” said he. “What did you discover?” He added before resuming kissing her breasts.</p>
<p>“Mmm, I don’t… know if I…”</p>
<p>“So?”</p>
<p>“Why did you stop?”</p>
<p>“‘Cause you’re not talking. You have to earn your reward, lover.”</p>
<p>“You’re gonna regret this, vampire. Continue.” Alia watched him with smiling eyes and squeezing his bottom. “Continue, I said.”</p>
<p>“Mmm, bossy little thing you are. So?”</p>
<p>“Do you remember that I identified a common unusual thought in several minds, different places, about a classical ballet setting with a dancer… dancing, and bad feelings attached to it?”</p>
<p>“Mmm.”</p>
<p>“Smirnov was known as Nureyev, Nuraeev, Nur-something, some decades ago. A Russian dancer, very famous all over the world. It seems he was, <em>is</em> obsessed with the man…”</p>
<p>“Rudolph Nureyev, Tatar, and Soviet not Russian. Wonderful dancer, indeed. I saw many of his shows,” said Eric. “I’d have told you, had you asked.”</p>
<p>“Well, I didn’t know! At any rate, it seems Missouri induces this kind of fake memory in those he glamours,” whispered Alia in his ears. “It means we have a way to track him down, and something to look for into the minds we check.”</p>
<p>“Is it important?” he lifted his head and watched her.</p>
<p>“You’ve seen how it’s not easy to work with minds, even if I can read them. Too many chances to get it wrong. This helps, may help. It’s like to know where to look to find the safe. It’s like that woman, the donor at the palace. We have a lead now and know where to look for… things.”</p>
<p>“Are you satisfied?”</p>
<p>“Very,” confirmed Alia. “Now we can discuss how to put to use this mouth.” She caressed his lips and kissed them.</p>
<p>“Little fae, I don’t think you have a say on that,” he quipped. “But you can voice your praise afterward, as usual.”</p>
<p>After half an hour, tired and satisfied, they sank into a deep sleep.</p>
<p>
  
</p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The fifth night was a time of farewells.</p>
<p>A few monarchs would stay to comment the results of the summit, whereas the majority would leave after the brief reception held in the Grand Pavilion. Pamela and Karin had been present on alternate days, and the grand finale was Pamela’s night.</p>
<p>The security had worked hard, but nothing had really happened beyond a few misunderstandings in handling donors. Some monarchs thought to use them against their will and cover it with glamouring. Leonard and Alia had detected the circumstance the second night and put a patch on it without spreading the news.</p>
<p>A donor, a frail, elegant man barely thirty years old who looked no more than thirteen (surely a Ggen, genetically modified generation, who had reversed his growth and stopped it in the teen range), had been bitten savagely by two vampires in the Tennessee retinue, and a woman (the same who had tried to meet Northman to gain information for her military boyfriend) had been kept several hours in Great Nebraska and Missouri’s shared rooms (unknown if the royals were present or not), almost drained and abused by several vampires of their suites. Hunter had been charged of delving in their minds and reporting all the relevant details for future use. The insurance paid a compensation equal to fifty times their yearly income as official donors, and all the monarchs involved (or whose rooms were used to commit the crimes) had to pay a further hundred times that amount to each one. The humans had been glamoured and released.</p>
<p>Alia and Eric had their first furious argument and, at the end, the fae had to accept the monetary solution as the only possible way to assuage the victims wounds. As Eric put it, in fact, the crimes had been committed notwithstanding all precautionary measures taken, and nothing could erase what had happened. If those responsible were to be taken to court, the judge would have confirmed the compensation already paid by the insurance firm and impose a detention order that could be converted in a monetary penalty. Surely, much less substantial than that voluntarily paid by the vampires. The latter would never serve a day for their crimes. The victims, on the contrary, would be forced to repeat over and over their abuse, thus living it again and again, and sharing it with police, court, lawyers, therapists, maybe journalists. Not to mention the close scrutiny their lives would endure, probably finding very questionable their choice to sell their body, or part of it, for a fat sum.</p>
<p>The fae was sitting cross-legged on a sofa in one of the cottages of the plantation ground.</p>
<p>“You say so because you don’t want any bad press on vampires.”</p>
<p>“Sure,” countered angrily Eric. “Besides, taking them to their clan’s representatives is more effective, if the goal is to tame their appetites.”</p>
<p>“But the victims have been led to choose huge compensation over trial.”</p>
<p>“Those donors have been greedy and stupid. You know very well that we suggest them to stay in their rooms to have the best security. To that end we organise donors’ quarters, timetables, guards.” Eric paced the large living room with long strides. “They accepted the money because they aimed at that with their irresponsible behaviour, in the first place. You, Alia, know it better than me, having been in their minds.”</p>
<p>“I’m not saying that they are innocent passersby caught in a shooting incident. But their stupidity is not cause enough for their suffering…”</p>
<p>“Is it not?” asked the vampire with a cold voice. “Everyone of us is responsible for his behaviour, stupid or intelligent. We are exempt only if what happens to us is… unavoidable with the best precautionary conducts we can think of.”</p>
<p>She lowered her eyes. “I don’t like seeing those… things happening… I…”</p>
<p>Eric sat at her side and lifted her on his lap, holding her close and tight in his arms. “Neither do I, lover.”</p>
<p>Alia nodded and sniffed, trying to hold back her tears.</p>
<p>The vampire stroke her back and kissed her hair, waiting to feel those bitter feelings of hers quieten down. They did not. Then he whispered, “Don’t think they are in the same position you were with your uncle, or Compton, or those fairies who tortured you. Look at me, now.”</p>
<p>She lifted her head from his shoulder and watched his beautiful face. Any trace of anger had disappeared, there was only a hard sadness that came from afar.</p>
<p>“Eric, I—”</p>
<p>He put a finger on her lips shushing her. “My little wonderful fae, I love you the way you are. I like that you don’t accept that people suffer because of their stupid behaviours, even if there’s no way to prevent… stupidity. I don’t feel responsible for the evil in the world. But I like that you don’t accept it with all your heart. It’s… something that warms my heart.” He paused, squeezed her against his chest and kissed her head. “I did my share of… ugly, and I’m not proud of it. Maybe I’ll do more in the future. Having you at my side is… beneficial to me in many ways. You make me want to be a better vampire, within my objective limits.”</p>
<p>“You are good, my love,” she whispered on his chest, “you never did something evil for the fun of it. I love you ‘cause you’re good in spite of all that you endured.”</p>
<p>“I did a lot of evil, lover. Maybe not for the fun of it, but sure I didn’t hold back in retaliation or revenge.”</p>
<p>They remained silent, tightening their embrace and kissing from time to time.</p>
<p>“All right, they’ve been careless. Stupid. That sums it up, indeed. Yet I cannot accept what happened to them.” She sighed noisily, and continued. “But I’m afraid that, yes, the huge compensation they had is the best they could hope for, all things considered. But I don’t like it. I don’t. Who’s got money does what he wants.”</p>
<p>“And you don’t have to like it, Alia. Life is not always likeable. But we can improve it around us. A little at a time. Making it as we like it.” The vampire lifted her head to lock eyes with her. “I’d like to do it with you. Will you be at my side?”</p>
<p>“As long as you want.”</p>
<p>He smiled. “Therefore it will be a very long time. Probably always.”</p>
<p>Alia felt his strong feelings stirring in her guts. “I think you let out the Eric I fell in love with, a January of a million years ago. Now there’s all of Eric here,” the fae pointed to his temple, “and I want you whole: the gentle human, the hard vampire, the hot male.”</p>
<p>Eric smiled.</p>
<p>“Let’s finish what we’ve started. I want to bond with you definitely, now. Would you—” her voice trailed off as they kissed.</p>
<p>They completed their bond on the fifth day of the summit, at dawn. </p>
<p>The following evening, after a day spent rolling on the bed, not always resting, they dressed for the last ball and walked to the Grand Pavilion.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Pamela was checking the last details with one of the managers of the resort, when she saw Alia and Eric. Chatting hand in hand, they walked away from the main building through the winding path that crossed a patch of Southern magnolias and finished in the court between the ballrooms. Behind them, Joseph and Adua with a somber Mississippi followed silently.</p>
<p>Most guests, and their retinue (that night dressed more fashionably or justmore wildly than ever), had already gathered around the pool. The musicians were starting to warm up dancers and acrobats on the notes of a <em>space-fizz</em> sonata, a rhythm born on the lunar bases and bounced back on Earth with the first wave of <em>lunatics</em> (a motley crowd of scientists, technicians, military personnel who had served over ten years on the satellite, and had come back to Earth having lost some of their brain to the space nothingness).</p>
<p>The vampiress, whose attire was an improbable space-meets-sixteenth-century, approached the couple with a bright smile. “Alia, maker, you’re—”</p>
<p>She stopped in mid-sentence and her smile widened some more. “Congratulations! I will hug you and everything afterward: my dress does not allow for dramatic gestures.”</p>
<p>“Your dress doesn’t work as clothes should. It seems… it seems something you crashed on,” said Eric smiling back.</p>
<p>“Eric!” the fae tore his arm, “Pam, don’t listen to him, it’s… it’s… what happened to the right side of… that thing? I mean, it’s… it’s… something… around you… on you…”</p>
<p>“Fae, you’re not improving around my maker. Maybe, it’s not been such a great idea to bond with him, after all.”</p>
<p>“No. Yes. I mean, this thing around you is… remarkable.”</p>
<p>Pamela pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes. Then watched the long dark blue dress the fae wore quietly: a light top with loose sleeves and a low neckline,matched by a skirt made of hundred of silken folds fastened by a large belt of the same material.</p>
<p>“Today, I pardon you,” she said. “Having drunk half of my maker isn’t surely making you any good. Besides, you’ve got to hurry up. Your favourite guest has just arrived and is in a foul mood: maybe you can cheer him up!”</p>
<p>Eric frowned and watched ahead. “Child, mind you. I can decide to complete your… crash and leave nothing to salvage.”</p>
<p>Adrianne Bakkali, along with Florian Griffith, were heading toward them flanking Missouri who appeared hard set in the jaw and sulky.</p>
<p>Nothing could shake Alia’s bliss. Her golden skin seemed to glow and her long, loose hair waved around her face with a life of its own. She smiled to the Russian vampire and set to approach him. Eric squeezed her at the waist and sent a warning tinge through their bond. She nodded without turning and stepped up, still smiling to Missouri.</p>
<p>“Lady Alia,” started Smirnov regaining his blank face, “you’re—”</p>
<p>The fae was vaguely annoyed at the fact that every vampire could understand at once that they had bonded, but being an unavoidable circumstance she shrugged it off as gracefully as she could and went on. Eric had explained at length that it was an uncommon occurrence and that that was the only reason vampires showed a mild surprise. They did not know what a bond really was and how to counterbalance it. It was just a matter of finding the right stance about it.</p>
<p>Smirnov decided to go for congratulations and indifference, but the light pause he could not suppress told another story. Possibly. “—radiating a light of your own, tonight.”</p>
<p>The vampire was tired and miffed if he could manage only a banal compliment like that, Alia considered briefly. “Thank you, Dima. I hope to bright up your evening, then.”</p>
<p>Alia made it clear that she was playing the kind hostess and led the Russian to the dancefloor asking him to teach her some dance moves.</p>
<p>Adrianne and Florian watched her leaving by Eric’s side. They waited until the music took a louder beat, then moved to a sitting area on the fringe of the action.</p>
<p>“Should I expect unpleasant consequences, Eric?” asked Adrianne lifting a perfect eyebrow in her blank oval face.</p>
<p>Eric had already foreseen the queen’s concern about his marriage, and knew he had to prove her its flimsiness. “Adrianne, nothing will change between us or in your queendom, if you don’t ask for it.”</p>
<p>“Lady Alia already said that much. Yet, Missouri and Tennessee are becoming more and more annoying these days, and Xu is barking at my window.”</p>
<p>“They may have reasons, not you.”</p>
<p>“But I’m caught in between,” carried on the queen. “Colorado is worried to lose my <em>help</em> if the fairies cut me out of business. Missouri and Tennessee didn’t know anything about it and fear what could come out for them. Smirnov already thought you were becoming too powerful and now he’s definitely seeing it.”</p>
<p>“Tennessee?”</p>
<p>“He’s goading Xu into I don’t know what, but nothing good, obviously,” she snapped.</p>
<p>“Didn’t you hold Colorado on a tight leash?” asked Florian in a schooled voice. He was slightly shorter than Eric but sturdier than him. Anyway his body seemed to invade a much larger place than that the blond vampire occupied gracefully. </p>
<p>“Even a thick rope can be torn apart by a scared, stupid beast if it thinks to be on the brink of a cliff about to be blasted to dust,” stated Adrianne Bakkali in a chilling voice. She had not meant to snap but Florian’s presence reminded her of her lost friend.</p>
<p>“Adrianne,” Eric locked eyes with her, “it’s not our goal to decrease your status and influence in Zeus clan. Your business with Faery is safe with us, and depends entirely on your relationship with their representatives and the deals you signed.” The vampire did not add anything else, given that the queen participated with her companies to the consortium which dealt with the Mars settlements, backed by fairies and daemons. Indeed, he would rather to increase the fairies presence in her country and move there some of his companies, instead of having more fairies in his kingdom. Wyoming, in fact, for his vast territories and sparse population, was better designed to welcome fairies without undue attention.</p>
<p>The queen weighed his words and nodded. “I offer to contain definitely Colorado if your wife accepts to lend a hand to me.”</p>
<p>Eric frowned. “Rehema is always inclined to help a friend. Ask her directly.”</p>
<p>“I meant your <em>true</em> wife, Eric,” the vampiress smiled.</p>
<p>The vampire turned to search his fae and saw her dancing with a very stiff Smirnov, nonetheless enjoying the weird rhythm and the lightness music gave to her spirits. “I’ll take her to you as soon as the party ends, and you’ll ask her.”</p>
<p>The night, and the soirée, rolled lazily through syncopate rhythms to dance and poignant arias to listen to with swollen eyes. Eric and Alia danced celebrating their private joy and, mostly, kept to themselves. In fact, the newly completed bond drew them together as if its process of consolidation required a physical proximity.</p>
<p>The fae pushed her mind around listening and, emboldened by the strength the bond and her vampire granted her, dived deep in a vampire mind. She chose a vampiress of Great Nebraska clique, and entered her head while she was trying to convince a Missouri advisor of the opportunity to join their countries in a tighter deal than that assured by commercial and financial agreements.</p>
<p>The vampiress, Alia had noted before, had drunk considerably (probably relying on strong nano-medicines, or a fake stomach, to counter the effects on her body) and was quite engrossed in their conversation. The fae slid in her mind and stopped to feel the natural flow of her synaptic paths. The red flare released by vampire minds was somehow muffled by the concentration the female infused in her task. Alia dived deeper, stopped again and listened. Hermine or Harper, Alia was not sure as the vampiress was one of a couple of twins and suffered of a sort of mental duplicity, hoped to reinforce her position with her queen helping her to secure a marriage deal with Missouri. To that end she had traded some intelligence regarding their neighbours Oklahoma and Colorado, and had just accepted to find something about Wyoming. She had also offered to tell what she knew about the late king of Indiana’s death. The current conversation, indeed, revolved around how disclosing that piece of information to push ahead the marriage negotiations. Alia stiffened in Eric’s arms, unsure whether to delve deeper, when she noticed that she could not disentangle from the vampiress’ mind. A pull combined with a gentle shove made her mind slid little by little into the red folds of Hermine/Harper.</p>
<p>The crimson flares increased and morphed into a solid presence as Alia descended in the alien mind, the pull stronger and enticing. Alia’s head started to pulse uncomfortably. Images of the queen and Smirnov in a violent intercourse, Bartlett and the queen in a wood cabin, Florian speaking on a screen, Florian giving two flashdrives to the vampiress, Smirnov yelling, the queen weeping, Bartlett, another vampire draining to death, Smirnov again. All faces whirled faster and faster. Alia’s temples pounded from inside out. Alia’s heart hammered in her chest. Pain. Redness. More pain.</p>
<p> </p>
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<a name="section0045"><h2>45. Chapter 45</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p> </p><p>A week after the summit Alia began understanding what had gone wrong with the reading of Great Nebraska’s vampiress. She had lightly judged her mind strength, considering the large amount of blood drunk in the bonding. In truth, she had thought that exactly the blood infusion would have granted her the rocky ground from which challenging a vampire mind. The bonding, though, had been precisely the reason everything had had an almost lethal aftermath. Delving deeply into a vampire mind had spurred her mind to build ties with it, but the lack of blood sharing had made it a fight instead of a mutual drive.</p><p>In the following days, in fact, her mind had incessantly worked to form binding ties with Eric’s. Both felt the urge to be physically close and parting more than a few hours had been uncomfortable. Indeed, the thing had been taxing and unsettling.</p><p>Eric had even called dr Ludwig to understand what was happening to them, and possibly find a way to make it viable in the long run. They had thought that they would not have gotten used to such a forced closeness for a protracted period of time. The little creature had stood wordless for a while, assessing the situation in her disturbing ways: smelling, licking, tasting, touching.</p><p>Finally, she stated, “You’re not dying.”</p><p>“Ludwig, my humour is impaired these days,” retorted the vampire.</p><p>“Uh, it’s not my problem, Northman. It’s you who decided to bond with a full-blooded fae. Ah ah ah.”</p><p>“So?” it was a question but it sounded like an accuse.</p><p>“So, you have to wait the completion of the bond. There’s nothing to do.”</p><p>“I don’t understand, though. The previous time we hadn’t gone through all this… stress,” said Alia. “We found our connection immediately.”</p><p>“Your blood is different now, fairy. Stronger. And… unlike other fairies I have tasted, it’s stronger in a new way.”</p><p>Then the doctor collected her tools and added, “Again, I never met a human-little-fae telepath who drank litres of vampire blood and became full fae, retaining a human core and something else and, at the same time, tried to bond with a vampire. Ugh, even praeternatural creatures have limits!”</p><p>“Is there anything… wrong?” asked Eric putting a hand on her shoulder.</p><p>“You’re both healthy, vampire. Call me when all this adjustment is over.”</p><p>It took more or less ten days for the bond to stabilise.</p><p>The physical drive to be close subsided and remained only the acceptable lovers’ desire to be together, but no physical pain or mental stress for a few hours of distance.</p><p>After two weeks, Alia went to Shreveport for a couple of days. They kept calling or texting each other to know if the other was fine, but the weekend went by uneventful on this account. Ludwig visited them again and confirmed that the bonding phase had ended and the bond had altered their mental shapes. It seemed that each mind had made room for the other’s mind to carve a niche and reside there. How it was not explainable, the doctor had said. Unless falling into tautology.</p><p>“It’s the bond you two created, fae. It’s so strong it changed your minds’ paths to allow a deeper connection between you.” Ludwig had turned to the vampire and added, “But you’re always the same arrogant vampire, don’t worry. And you, fae, won’t grow fangs… I think.”</p><p>In a couple of more weeks they got used to it and did not pay attention, not much at least, to others’ reaction to their unusual bond. The ordinary explanation, widely accepted and likely correct, was that two strong minded creatures with very different physical characteristics had created that in order to retain their singleness in a solid union.</p><p>It had been the Secretary Latsis to put into words a statement that clarified that without being too elusive and give the impression to hide something.</p><p>Alia was clearly fuming at the necessity to justify their bond and asked not to make it an official communication. Therefore, Latsis selected a few individuals to spread the supported clarification in unofficial ways.</p><p>“Why should I give explanation about my personal choices? We bonded. Full stop. No one should put his finger—”</p><p>“Lover,” Eric tried to hush her gently. “It’s our interest that no one, in my kingdom and in Faery, thinks that one of us is the other’s puppet.”</p><p>“Obviously we are not,” she snapped.</p><p>“We know that, Alia. But others feel a strong, weird bond between us and think… very stupid things. That’s only a way to prevent unwelcoming reaction to it, from both sides.”</p><p>“Eric, this is our choice, our bond. It’s me and you. I don’t want anyone to dictate how we should behave in our personal lives… or to disagree with actions that are so intimate.”</p><p>“People think and speak whatever they want, whatever you do. I’m only concerned about dangerous consequences for our public figure. That’s the meaning of this <em>unrequested explanation</em>: we let it trickle sideways, casually. In order to prevent fears, doubts or else.”</p><p>“Pam said we appear so knit together… she felt it in the bond you two have.” the fae slid into his arms and stared at him from below.</p><p>The vampire smiled and squeezed her bottom. “The bond with my children is shut since long: I freed both of them and open our bond rarely, just to send them my love. I guess she noticed it when she came to congratulate and we connected briefly to exchange our feelings. Was she worried?”</p><p>“No, not worried. Just… surprised and sad, I’d say. But not for us,” Alia kissed his collarbone, “I think it made her think of her lost love.”</p><p>Eric nodded. “It’s a hole in her mind, you know. That’s how deep felt memories appear.” He lifted her in his arms and strode across the living room toward their bedroom.</p><p>It was almost dawn and the day after she would leave for Faery.</p><p>Alia was not happy to leave Eric for a few days, much less knowing that for him it would be many more, given a time lag of one to six. But they had postponed this journey for more than a month now, letting the bond stabilise and themselves adjust to it.</p><p>Among the articles added to the marriage agreement Niall had asked for, there was one which guaranteed the bride’s right to spend a certain amount of time in her country (Faery) every year (Earth time). Her great grandfatherhad explained it was meant to allow room for her further education and to participate to events with her House. Alia had agreed, without specification of time to spend in Faery.</p><p>At the moment, though, she felt a lump in her throat and a knot in her gut. Eric felt her emotions and tried to dampen down his. He would not let her go, if not for the fact that it would not be a good move before their marriage. And he felt his stomach cramp at the idea of her lover back in Niall’s house. He had been the cause of several attempts on her life and had showed a slow response in taking action. The vampire tried to sooth his nerves telling himself that it was a bond feeling and his fear to lose her.</p><p>“I feel that you’re not happy either, my love,” she whispered kissing his fingers, “but I promised Niall to go and I have to talk to Dillon for Wyoming’s project.”</p><p>“I’d feel better if it was me to accompany you, or at least Batanya,” he said trying to have a light tone.</p><p>“Niall said all of my bombers have been killed. There’s no danger in Faery.”</p><p>“Be careful, my fae. Just be careful and come back as soon as you can. Promise.” Eric felt stupid and worried, but could not avoid either.</p><p>“Four days in Faery, twenty four here. Less if I manage to avoid a few commitments.”</p><p>They made love unhurriedly, savouring every moment as it had to last for a few weeks, but at the end of the day they did not feel sated nor ready to part.</p><p>However, after some hours after sunset Eric accompanied Alia to the portal in Bon Temps and kissed her smiling face one last time before letting her go.</p><p>To Niall, who had showed to take Alia, the vampire said simply, “I put her in your hands, but I’ll take your life if anything happens to her.”</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>It had been a year, in Earth time, but a mere two months in Faery since Alia had left. The fae basked in the sun and in the verdant valleys’ scents. Faery was her powerful home as Earth was her loved one. She could imagine her futurejourneying through them at leisure, her only regret being that Eric could not follow her there.</p><p>The first day was a time of welcoming. She met with Aine and Chadwick at her cousin’s place. The swordmaster tested her training and Aine reported two months worth of gossip and political affairs. Then Alia met with Dillon and set the schedule of her forthcoming commitments in Faery.</p><p>Her great-uncle appeared aloof as ever but his words did show some warmness. His frankness, though, embarrassed Alia.</p><p>“Are you sure to marry the vampire?”</p><p>“It’s not the first time.”</p><p>“Indeed,” he said. “But this time you’re completely fae, Alia.”</p><p>“Am I? Everybody keeps telling me so, but beyond having sharper telepathic powers, which are not a fairy trait, I don’t feel much different than before.”</p><p>“It’s the spark. It occupies all of you, now,” he explained. “And it glows beautifully.”</p><p>It was unfamiliar to hear praises from Dillon. Alia wondered if it included a price to pay, and waited.</p><p>“It even seems brighter than the last time we met,” he considered after a while. “Maybe it’s the bond. How do you feel?”</p><p>“Greatly.”</p><p>Then the silence sat between them as an awkward guest.</p><p>“It’s the first time we deal with a vampire bond,” he started in a less cold tone, after a while. “We don’t really know what to expect.”</p><p>“Is it for that that Niall, or you as far as I know, wanted me here?”</p><p>“Yes, it was me. Niall met you on Earth, but I… I don’t like very much that dimension. I wanted to see with my eyes that you are fine.”</p><p>Alia frowned and beamed at the same time. “I am. More than fine, indeed.”</p><p>Dillon nodded. Then smiled. “Good.”</p><p>Alia felt uneasy under his gaze. And his pleased look. “Is there something I should know?”</p><p>“In due time. We have plans for you.”</p><p>The fae cocked her head and narrowed her eyes. “Will I have a say about it?”</p><p>Her great-uncle grinned, in an unexpected gracious way. “From what I heard, there won’t be a chance we wouldn’t hear your say. But, I hope you’ll agree.”</p><p>Alia nodded. “May I ask something?”</p><p>His answer was an elegant hand gesture inviting her to speak.</p><p>“Portals,” began Alia, “is there a reason you don’t allow any to be open all time?”</p><p>“As before, you mean?” Dillon thought a few seconds, then answered, “It was a ban by Niall, more than forty years ago. In truth, it has no reason anymore.”</p><p>“Therefore, wouldn’t it be harmful to keep open a portal?”</p><p>“Would you like to have your portal always open?” said the fairy with a warm tone. “I can arrange that, Alia.”</p><p>“My portal?”</p><p>“The one in Bon Temps. It’s been created by Fintan to be with his human family as often and easily as possible. Now, it’s yours.”</p><p>“Oh,” she gaped at Dillon for a few seconds. “No, I was thinking about Wyoming’s portal.”</p><p>The fairy tilted his head and a cold smile appeared on his lips. “Even better, fae. Is Bakkali a good ally or a country to keep in check?”</p><p>“Both.”</p><p>“Maybe I like the way you think. Elaborate.”</p><p>“Wyoming proved to be a good ally, though her neighbour is… bustling and unreliable. It could be a way to assuage Colorado’s misgivings, and to tie Bakkali tighter,” explained the fae.</p><p>Dillon poured some liquor in two goblets and offered one to Alia. “The vampire’s company is doing some good to you, after all.”</p><p>“Let’s say that it would be a nice marriage gift for Wyoming and Colorado.”</p><p>He lifted his goblet to clink Alia’s and said, “Lady Alia, of the House of Brigant, will present the new couple with this gift. I think we’ll get along very well, fae.”</p><p>“I thought we already did!” countered Alia with a nod.</p><p>“Better, then. Much better now that you are with your vampire.”</p><p>Alia felt a heaviness leaving her shoulders and smiled with a sort of gratitude. She realised in that moment that since she had proposed, without consulting her family intentionally, she had expected opposition or, at least, an unkind reaction from her relatives. Included Jason and his children.</p><p>“Aren’t you… opposed to my vampire?” she asked in a thin voice.</p><p>Dillon hesitated. “Frankly, I would have preferred a fairy. We need children, Alia. But it’s not an issue that can be pushed randomly. And I understand.”</p><p>“What do you mean?”</p><p>“As you may have guessed, my marriage has not been a love match,” he said coldly. “I don’t feel like suggesting anyone marries only to have children, as much as we need them. And I understand that after what happened to you with Neave and Lochlan, Claude, Branna, Binne… I understand that fairies are not your favourite partners.”</p><p>Alia shook her head. Then said, “Evil, or just mean, exists everywhere. Do not think that humans or vampires have been kinder to me. No, it’s not that. Simply, I fell in love with Eric. But, what Binne has to do with it?”</p><p>“My late wife was involved with Branna and those who attempted on your life. It was her way to retaliate for Claude’s death.”</p><p>Alia almost staggered. So much blood had been shed.</p><p>“Niall didn’t tell you?” his voice flat and distant.</p><p>The fae stared at him. “He mentioned Branna, not Binne. I’m sorry.”</p><p>“I’m the one to be sorry. I failed to see it.” His tone was colourless when he added, “Aengus took care of it.”</p><p>Alia found herself hugging Dillon’s tall, muscular body without having really thought it before. It was the natural drive that allowed fairies to better express themselves with their body. Dillon, therefore, simply welcomed her into his arms. They stood like that for a while. It was the first time they ever touched each other outside of formal greetings, and Alia felt like she had met him for the first time after so many years.</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p>
  
</p><p>The second day had began with a message from Rhiannon to postpone their afternoon tea to the day after, and with a visit from Niall to go through her common commitments as outlined the day before with Dillon. Aine had hosted Alia at her place but was busy with an assignment and the fae, alone, tasted the sweetness of that stay as if it were a holiday and a nostalgic journey at once.</p><p>She strolled around the grassland behind the house, and hiked through the valley where she used to practice with the Dancer. When she went back to Aine’s cottage it was late afternoon and the sun had washed away every thought. Maybe, she was happy.</p><p>In the porch Aengus sat on the wicker-like sofa, drinking a cup of tea.</p><p>Alia hesitated, but then approached him. “Hello.”</p><p>He smiled his usual cold smile and greeted her with a little bow.</p><p>“I didn’t know you were in Faery,” she said casually.</p><p>“Lately I’ve been spending most of my time here. Things to settle. Plans to implement.” He waved a hand dismissively.</p><p>She sat down on a chair. “Your father showed me something, yesterday.”</p><p>“Are you joining us?”</p><p>“As much as I can. Actually, one day here is six on Earth. I can participate to most official meetings here and, obviously, on Earth. When the time shift will move again, we’ll reschedule my commitments accordingly.”</p><p>“Father is so considerate.”</p><p>“Listen, Aengus,” she started without any idea on how to frame the subject of their relationship, or better the lack of. “The last time we met—”</p><p>“The last time we met,” he interjected in a louder tone, “you were in a very bad shape.”</p><p>As if someone had switched a light on, she remembered him over her, in her kitchen in Shreveport. The night of the last attempt on her life. Alia stood motionless, wordless.</p><p>“Yes, it was me. My mother hired a notorious fae witch to snatch you, but the magic didn’t work very well on you.”</p><p>Alia swallowed and murmured, “Your mother…”</p><p>“I discovered it by chance and came to stop him.”</p><p>The fae remembered to have seen him fighting another male, and a female, in her kitchen. The memory had a dream-like quality to it and did not seem real. She had been frozen during all of it and then passed out.</p><p>“Why? What did…” she could not utter the words.</p><p>“Why? Niall had tortured and killed Claude, sent Claudine to die for you and dragged Claudette with him in war. Mother thought it was enough,” he said. “Wanted to make him suffer. I guess.”</p><p>Alia breathed consciously, trying to keep it regular.</p><p>“I think the magic didn’t work because of the <em>blood</em> you ingested.”</p><p>When the fae regained some calmness and thought her voice would sound firm, she whispered, “Thank you…”</p><p>Aengus was silent.</p><p>When he spoke after, his voice was bitter. “Thank you, you say. Thank you. And how do you thank me? You reject me and marry <em>a bloodsucker</em>. You even drank his blood.”</p><p>Alia watched him shaking her head. “What…?”</p><p>“Is it not true? Aren’t you marrying the leech?”</p><p>“Aengus, what does it mean?” She could not understand his behaviour, nor put it in perspective. “Why are you saying so?”</p><p>“What don’t you understand, fae? You chose him over me and wonder why I am pissed off? After all I did for you?”</p><p>“No, I don’t understand,” she countered feeling a mounting rage. “I don’t understand what do you want. The last three years I was here we barely saw each other half dozen times per year, for a few days or less and every time by chance. What was there to reject? A fucking nothing, Aengus.”</p><p>“I was letting you time to understand what you wanted.”</p><p>“I do now.”</p><p>“You got back to Earth and <em>understood</em> that all you wanted was fucking a vampire. Is that what you understood?”</p><p>“What the fuck are you saying? As if you offered me more than bubbles of fucking! We barely spoke. You never showed me more than sexual interest, and now <em>you</em> wonder why I’m not here waiting for you? Is it so?”</p><p>“You really cannot appreciate freedom and its cost,” he snapped standing up and towering above her still sitting on her chair. “Why haven’t you ever read my mind, fae?”</p><p>“Why should I read someone’s mind to know what he thinks? It’s something I do with people who hides crimes or the like. I don’t sneak into my friends’ minds to see if they have hidden something from me. It doesn’t work like that.” She was standing up now, and shouting at him. He still towered over her with a grimace of disgust on his face. “If you wanted me to know anything about you, you just had to tell me so. And you said a fucking nothing to me. Further, your behaviour was telling enough!”</p><p>“What about my behaviour?”</p><p>Alia noticed how his features were slightly morphing into a fighting stance, eyes devoid of any light and teeth sharp as tiny pikes. All his body quivering on the verge of shifting into his war form.</p><p>“We’ve never been a couple, never shared anything that was not sex, and we had plenty of casual partners all the time. What should I have understood by this?”</p><p>“I never had another lover in Faery, and those I bedded outside were just playthings. Meant nothing. I thought it was the same with you.”</p><p>“Why haven’t you ever told me anything about that? Not even now. You’re just complaining that I’m about to marry someone, not that you feel something for me.”</p><p>They stood staring at each other, silent.</p><p>Finally Aengus spoke, callously. “You’re mine, Alia. And now I’ll show you.”</p><p>Then he punched her on the temple and the fae crashed on the sofa, toppling it to the floor.</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>It was twenty days that Alia had left for Faery.</p><p>After six days Eric had received a message, through Cataliades, and she was fine and busy. I love you, she had ended the note. Then, nothing more.</p><p>He was antsy.</p><p>Had Faery been any other country, nothing would have stopped him from getting there. But it was Faery. Without spark, had explained to him Alia, no onecould access that dimension.</p><p>Their bond had been muted since her departure. But they had expected that much, therefore it was not a sign of anything else than the fact that dimensions were uncommunicative. And she had assured him she would have worked to end her stay before the four days she had agreed to be there.</p><p>Four days in Faery, twenty four on Earth.</p><p>Maybe it was good that she was there, after all. He had been attacked twice since her leaving. By fairies. Eric had warned Niall, and assured him that his life was hanging by a thread if he did not police his people. Last attempt had been a week earlier.</p><p>Eric had been mulling over those circumstances as he strolled in Shreveport’s streets, his escort scattered around him inconspicuously. Indira had not liked the idea of a walk, Thalia had just grinned. Tádé the Dull, the Hungarian vampire his child was so fond of, trod carefully bringing up the rear.</p><p>A warm, silent night without much traffic. They were heading to the parking lot where they had left their cars. Scents were more intense where the tarmac released the heat absorbed during the day. Probably it was this circumstance that allowed Eric to spot the fairies. He had focused on those scents whiffing from the nearby trees and turned to see the source. Four fairies stood among a large patch of old willow oaks, perched on their lower branches.</p><p>He stopped and crouched to pluck a blade of grass from a flowerbed flanking the sidewalk. Indira and Thalia understood and drew their weapons. Tádé continued his walk unfazed. His brain had not processed anything dangerous, but that played well and gave the scene a natural touch.</p><p>In the following four seconds the fairies became ten, six more coming from the Hungarian’s side. The fight was brief and bloody. In fact, fairies were equipped with an array of weapons among which lasguns and long distance tasers were more numerous than blades. A choice, wondered Eric, or a poor judgement?</p><p>Unlike humans, vampires could resist large doses of electrocution and lasguns, with their pinpoint laser beam, were not precise at long distances and not that powerful to take down a vampire in close combat. The agility and velocity of an average vampire, indeed, made them unreliable weapons. At most good for a surprise attack, followed soon by the real stroke.</p><p>In this case, then, the surprise factor had not been exploited to its full extent.</p><p>Tádé the Dull, faithful to his monicker and to his simple intent, fought until his last drop of blood. Thalia’s instructions had been not to let anyone come from the rear. And no one overwhelmed his resistance. He died without two limbs, an arm and a leg, three taser’s buttons attached to his chest and a copious haemorrhage from said limbs and throat. He drained two fairies and killed two with a dagger and an axe.</p><p>The remaining two met Thalia, and maybe thought that a minute female would not be a match to them. She whirled around them, biting and stabbing to death as the little Erinys she was. Thalia, a Greek old vampiress from classical era, knew better than taste their blood or let their war scent impair her mental clarity. She fought without breathing.</p><p>Indira and Eric faced their opponents with short daggers, the only weapons they had been able to hide under their formal suits. Two taser’s buttons, shot to aim the following electrical discharge to their targeted subject, hit Eric on the right upper arm and the opposite thigh, but their power did not stop him from crushing the throat of the fairy who assaulted him with lasgun and blade. The male tried to bite him but his attempt died before having any chance of success, and he fell unconscious to the grass with a quite remarkable concussion. One of the remaining two fairies struck Eric from behind with a long sword, while the vampire was still dealing with the former. Eric felt his collarbone giving way under the powerful hit and turned to face the fairy.</p><p>A tall, muscular male with dark hair and a row of sharp teeth exposed,punched his taser into Eric’s groin at full power. The vampire stabbed him with his short dagger and retracted the blade turning it in the wound. The fairy, face distorted in his war mask, staggered back in disbelief.</p><p>Eric turned briefly to assess the situation and caught Indira who had just ended her second assailant and was deciding whether to feed or not.</p><p>“Don’t,” he ordered.</p><p>The clash had been over in a few minutes and was followed by tense calm. Fights usually ended so or, at least, that was what it felt like in the stillness of corpses and the weird relaxation survivors experienced.</p><p>“Thalia, call India to clear the area,” ordered Eric.</p><p>“My tab’s broken.”</p><p>“Indira,” he said turning to the casteless Indian. His right collarbone throbbed like a tribal tune, accelerating at every round and infiltrating his brain, whereas his left hand, still gripping the hilt of his bleeding dagger, twitched restless.</p><p>Leaves rusting, a distant popping sound, then the night’s noise came back in layers: crickets, barn owls, northern mockingbirds and, lastly, a lost American robin calling its mate. Far away, cars horns and the half sleeping city constant humming. It was remarkable how much noise the brain can mute away.</p><p>Eric swept his gaze over the scene and noticed that the fairy he had deadly injured had vanished, while the one passed out on the grass had actually died.</p><p>“You better be dead, Niall,” he muttered to the night. An ominous cramp flexed his gut and left him wary.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0046"><h2>46. Chapter 46</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>When she started to come to, Alia felt her head throbbing furiously as if a part of her brain wanted out. She fainted again. After an undetermined amount of time, she tried to open her eyes. Only she could not. She went in and out of consciousness for a while, probably. Thoughts were fogged and rolled in wrong directions. Like, she remembered a time her mother found her digging into a patch of grass and eating larvae. Now, she was almost certain she had reached adulthood since long time, but maybe it was not so. Next, she was facing a shrink she went to when she was in sixth grade. But things were blurry.</p>
<p>Later, she decided to wake up. It took all her determination to stay focused on the present, and it was one of the most regrettable choice she had ever done. But she thought that only after a few hours, so she was not conscious about the painful decision in the moment.</p>
<p>She was laying on a soft surface, curled up in a foetal position, a light sheet over her body. Her body. Now, that was curious. She felt her body as someone else’s. Rationally she knew it was hers, unless she was caged into someone else’s mind. Some time passed by and nothing happened. Until everything came back to her in a rush.</p>
<p>She yelled, and noticed that her throat hurt and no appreciable sound had come out of it. Then she took notice of the pain her whole body drowned into. Something was wrong. Sorely wrong. And when a situation did not fit any model of normality, it was necessary to analyse it. To understand what was amiss and possibly why. Therefore, she listed all the things that were faulty.</p>
<p>Her brain. It was jerking inside her skull and it hurt. Thinking, too, was painful and came in fits and starts. An eye would not open: it was swollen and wet, and it hurt. Nose. She could not breath through it and, in fact, she did so through her mouth. Her mouth had a coppery, salty flavour. Blood, maybe. At any rate both hurt, nose and mouth. Her throat too. Arms. She knew she had two, but only one was there, the other was not. What the hell? Anyway she had to continue listing her failures. Her chest was unusually heavy, as if the all world sat on the pit of her stomach. The lower belly ached. It was a dull pain she could not place. It was everywhere. Her inside burned, and she felt wetness between her legs. Legs. Those were heavy. Heavy and sore.</p>
<p>Her mind was trying to tell her something but she did not want to listen. She wanted to cry, but she was unable to. Fuck! She used to weep for every fucking emotion, good or bad, and now that she needed to cry (and she knew it was the right thing to do), she could not.</p>
<p>Time went by, maybe. And she stalled.</p>
<p>Out of the blue she heard it. <em>You’re mine, Alia. I’ll show you</em>. It was Aengus’ voice in her mind. And everything started again. Aengus had punched her head and everything had gone black. When she had come to they were at the Brigant’s mansion in the Orlagh’s Valleys.</p>
<p>He had beaten her up. Uncontrollable.</p>
<p>That explained her throbbing head, her swollen eye, the bloated jaw and the blood in her mouth. She had tried to talk him out of his fury. But he was beyond listening. He had punched and slapped her, until she had stopped speaking and yelling and had curled up in a corner, her arms around the head. He just could not stop beating and speaking. Weirdly, his logorrhoea was somehow calm, he stopped hitting to speak, and when he did his tone was cool, detached.</p>
<p>The core of his disordered monologue had seemed to stress the fact that Alia was his and she had to understand that, and behave accordingly. He had said a lot more, but Alia did not mind to recall everything. It was painful.</p>
<p>Then, he had torn her clothes and pushed himself inside her with a blunt resolve. His girth and her lack of lubrication had teared her internal walls. The bleeding had lowered her consciousness. She remembered her head banging on the floor, and the left arm bent awkwardly until it had snapped. Broken, she thought. And the bruising inside.</p>
<p>At some point Alia had passed out. But not for long.</p>
<p>She came to inside a bathtub, hot water that hurt her injuries taking a red colour as her bleeding had not stopped. Aengus naked, his bloodstained dick bobbing casually. Her own blood, she observed. And he had washed her, speaking in a soft tone, combing her hair. After, he had dried her and taken her to bed. The room was somewhere upstairs and the dawn light filtered from a large window.</p>
<p>Alia did not remember having had thoughts in those moments. She was awake and blanked out at the same time. She had not uttered a word, and everything had seemed happening from afar. Aengus laying at her side, then over her. Aengus licking her sore folds and asking why she was not enjoying it. Aengus inside her moving in and out. Blood leaking from several parts of her body. Pain.</p>
<p>He had left the bed during the day, and disappeared till late at night. At a certain point Alia had lifted herself to go to the bathroom, had tripped on a rug or something slippery, and fallen. She had lost consciousness.</p>
<p>Aengus had come back and placed her on the bed again. It was something shededuced, given that she did not remember to have raised and walked back to it. Aengus had been slightly injured, and had slept at her side. Before leaving again he had announced that she would not been leaving Faery any more. She was to stay there with him. Those words had trickled into her mind, meaningless.</p>
<p>Now that she was remembering her last two days (almost, she had seen two dawns and two evenings, but could not say which hour was now), she understood those words. Aengus meant to keep her prisoner here where Eric could not reach out to her.</p>
<p>She had to think. She had a mind and she had to use it. It was at that moment that she realised that she had not tried, not even once, to open up her mind to the outside. She had been so panicked and scared not to use the only weapon available to her. Chadwick would have scolded her.</p>
<p>Painfully, Alia helped her body to stand up and went to the bathroom. She washed with a wet towel avoiding the more sore parts and tried to collect her thoughts. The door was locked and the room was upstairs, almost ten metres from the green below. No one was around. At least, to the distance her throbbing head could listen to.</p>
<p>Alia searched the room for something to defend herself with. Nothing. The closet and the drawer chest were empty. Not a vase or a plate or anything decorated the place, not a chair to make a stick of its legs.</p>
<p>She found a bathrobe and went back to bed. She needed to regain some energy and be ready for when Aengus or someone else would come around. Sleeping was beyond her ability, but she rested and waited, probing around with her mind from time to time.</p>
<p>Aengus arrived and stayed briefly. He was pale and distraught, moved slowly and painfully. She began thinking to stand up and approach him when he turned and left again. Had he said something?, wondered Alia. His mind was radiating anger and pain, but no coherent thinking she could pick up.</p>
<p>He closed the door and Alia sighed.</p>
<p>After some minutes she noticed a tray with food over the drawer chest and forced herself to taste something. Then went to the bathroom and started to tear towels apart, making long strips to weave together.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“You have to feed.”</p>
<p>Eric grunted something and continued to stare at his tablet. A few hours earlier he had called his second asking her to start interviewing his allies about their willingness to follow him into war.</p>
<p>“Eric, you have to feed,” repeated Pamela. “Yesterday you broke a bone, lost blood.”</p>
<p>The imposing vampire turned and watched her, without giving any sign to have taken into consideration the suggestion.</p>
<p>“Fuck,” Pamela touched the screen of her tablet and nodded when a ping confirmed the receiver was carrying out the order. “Two donors are on their way.”</p>
<p>“No.”</p>
<p>“Don’t be stupid. Even Alia would ask you to feed from a live source if in that fucking Faery existed phones and she knew you were royally stressed and starving.”</p>
<p>“No.”</p>
<p>“Fuck you, Eric. It’s three weeks she’s gone, you’ve been attacked three times and haven’t fed once,” snapped Pamela angrily.</p>
<p>“Blood bags suck. No live source.”</p>
<p>“Eric, you’re not thinking rationally.”</p>
<p>A knock at the door interrupted the dressing down and Pamela ordered them in. “At least one, Eric.”</p>
<p>“Send them away.”</p>
<p>Pamela stood and beckoned one of the two men, pointing to a sofa in a niche.</p>
<p>“Maker, do you mind if I feed here?” her voice sounded resigned.</p>
<p>“I don’t.” Eric opened a wooden cabinet and retrieved a blood bag stocked in the little fridge, poured the blood in the heated pitcher and went back to sit. Cataliades had not called back. Yesterday, after the third failed attempt on his life, Eric had felt a cold fear building in his guts and had asked the daemon lawyer to contact his fae. Cataliades had not yet called back.</p>
<p>The donors left the study and Pamela filled his goblet with fresh blood. He drunk in one go. Two more times before his child stopped refilling his glass.</p>
<p>“You look so disgusted. That fae spoiled you.”</p>
<p>“Alia is not calling back,” he said. “Something is wrong. Since she left I’ve been attacked by fairies, it cannot be accidental. The target is me and these fairies are not those who attempted on her life.”</p>
<p>“Wait,” countered Pamela. “Niall told you to have ended all the bombers, but maybe it was not true. He’s never been—”</p>
<p>“He spoke to Alia, his granddaughter. Are you saying he lied to her?”</p>
<p>“Does she read fairies?”</p>
<p>Eric nodded.</p>
<p>The vampiress sat and watched her maker. “Would you really wage a war to Faery?”</p>
<p>Eric raked a hand through his hair and spoke slowly. “If Alia cannot freely contact me, I have to deduce that something is wrong in Faery, either. I trust Cataliades is pulling all his weight but after almost three hours, Faery time, Alia has not called back. What should I think?”</p>
<p>Eric’s tabled chimed.</p>
<p>“Cataliades,” the vampire answered at first ring.</p>
<p>“Northman, something is… awry. I alerted my people and a few trusted fairies. I call you back as soon as I have news.”</p>
<p>“Niall?”</p>
<p>The daemon hesitated then carried on. “I went through informal channels this time.”</p>
<p>When Eric spoke his voice was utterly devoid of life. “I’ll wait one more hour, Faery time. Then I kill all faeries in my kingdom and then go hunting them everywhere. You have my word.”</p>
<p>Pamela’s tablet chimed as Eric cut the connection to the daemon.</p>
<p>“Karin,” the vampiress answered, “our maker has just declared war to Faery if Alia does not contact him in six hours, Earth time.”</p>
<p>The first round of phone calls had resulted in three armies at Eric’s disposal: Alabama, Mississippi and Indiana. Karin was waiting to hear from Texas and New Mexico.</p>
<p>“Wyoming and Oklahoma stalled. Adrianne said she needed a few hours to pull her strings in Faery and understand what is going on,” continued Karin over the phone. “New Mexico just sent his confirmation now. Four kingdoms.”</p>
<p>Eric’s face was blank. It was his younger child to voice his surprise.</p>
<p>“Fuck, Karin. How did you convince all those cautious weasels in a couple of hours?”</p>
<p>“Why? With the truth, obviously,” answered Karin flatly.</p>
<p>“Rehema and Russell jumped aboard the bandwagon to start a war… at a simple notice?” Pamela’s mocking tone echoed through the speakers.</p>
<p>“The danger is concrete, why shouldn’t they back us?”</p>
<p>“I can understand Rehema, maybe Russell, he just lost his husband. But Nantan?” continued Pamela. “What did you promise him to make him agree?”</p>
<p>“I told and promised everybody the same,” said Karin. “Our kingdom, in the person of our king, has been attacked three times in two weeks time by unknown fairies. At the moment no claim has been sent and no formal declaration of war either. I asked their backing as allies and promised ours in case their kingdoms would be attacked.”</p>
<p>“And they are ready to attack fairies because of Alia?” insisted Pamela.</p>
<p>“What has it to do with Alia? Fairies attacked our maker, repeatedly. It’s not a case, but an indirect declaration. The only refraining from all out war we may consider is if it’s the action of an opposing faction to the current Faery government. That is why I took the liberty to inform the Delegate of the situation.”</p>
<p>“Thank you, Karin,” said Eric. His voice was firm now that he had something else to think beside Alia’s disappearance. “List all the known fairies in our kingdom and ask our allies to do the same. I have already informed Cataliades of my… intentions.”</p>
<p>“Eric,” Pamela said, “I’ve just texted my second. Do you want me here or in Arkansas?”</p>
<p>“Arkansas. List your fairies and be ready.” Eric nodded to no one in particular and stepped out on the balcony. Life had always the disturbing habit to blow up plans and hopes, reducing beings to insignificant specks of dust. Butthis time he refused to dance to someone else’s tune.</p>
<p>
  
</p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“I saw a path closing in front of us.”</p>
<p>Cataliades was sitting on a plush armchair and sipped a cup of tea. The Pythia was staring into her glass of water as if reading their destiny. The daemon’s face was unusually ashen, his eyes bloodshot for lack of sleep and fatigue. He nodded once.</p>
<p>“Our chances are in jeopardy. Again.”</p>
<p>Cataliades listened to the vampiress with a very limited part of his brain. The remaining lot was too busy running dreadful scenarios involving his goddaughter.</p>
<p>“What is going on, Desmond?”</p>
<p>“I came here hoping you would have told me,” he said. “I don’t know.”</p>
<p>“The last time I met Alia, she came here with Northman,” started the Pythoness. “Afterward, visions became… solid and neat. I thought to have found our way out of harm’s way. During last weeks, though, something has changed. Badly. I heard of attempts on Northman’s life.”</p>
<p>“So did I, but he’s fine.” Cataliades put the cup on a side table and clenched together his hands. “Furious, exactly.”</p>
<p>“I saw destruction and chasms among countries. Weakness. Blood.”</p>
<p>“War?” asked the daemon.</p>
<p>“Possibly.”</p>
<p>“Alia is in Faery. So it seems. No one knows her whereabouts, though. Not Niall, nor Dillon, nor Aengus. The last time Niall saw her, she was at her cousin’s house,” recounted painfully Cataliades. “She could be anywhere by now. And she can’t reach out for help.”</p>
<p>“I tried to find her, but I don’t see anything. She must be still in Faery.”</p>
<p>They were silent for a while. Then the vampiress rose and stood facing a cabinet, opening and closing drawers.</p>
<p>“Life is precious, daemon. Wherever it comes from, it is precious and fragile. And this universe has little room for it, it seems. More, space is hostile to it. Too many dangers, lack of favourable elements to support it, chances of great failures in the proceedings to successful lifeforms. Intelligent ones, at least.”</p>
<p>Cataliades hardly paid her attention.</p>
<p>“Humanoids, it seems, are intelligent only to a point. Then, they prey on each other and nullify better chances to develop their intelligence.”</p>
<p>The vampiress sat again. “My visions encompass places and ages, but they stem from what and who is around me and my sphere of interest. From what I’ve been in the past, am now,will be in the future. If I have any. I as a race, not this tiny individual that is me.”</p>
<p>Cataliades nodded. It seemed the only sensible thing to do.</p>
<p>“One may argue that I am a mutant, a race produced by a chance encounter with a monster, powerful enough to change a weak life form and make it stronger, durable, gifted. And you? What about daemons? Or fairies?”</p>
<p>Cataliades smiled reluctantly. Debates on their origin had always been common among daemons, and theories abounded. From lost interdimentional portals, to extraterrestrial survivors, to mutant branches of homo sapiens or a different genus of the same family. As far as he knew the same working assumptions were viable for vampires or fairies alike.</p>
<p>“I know you have ongoing debates on this topic, daemon,” she said locking eyes with him.</p>
<p>“Pythia, what are you trying to tell me?”</p>
<p>“Do you remember that device from Oklahoma?”</p>
<p>The daemon nodded.</p>
<p>“It helped us to narrow down our theories to… two.”</p>
<p>“Is it relevant to our current situation?”</p>
<p>“I have to assume it is,” replied curtly the vampiress. “In truth, it’s just speculation and, at best, a way to quench our thirst for knowledge and assuage our fears for the future.”</p>
<p>“How are Alia and Northman in the picture?”</p>
<p>“Among many documents stored in that device, there were two videos which… which attracted my attention and spiked my visions. In one there were several individuals. Men, apparently. They spoke in an unknown guttural, clipped language. None of the six thousand five hundred languages actually spoken on Earth applied. They were eating and drinking in a futuristic setting, ostensibly a spaceship. At a certain point, a man said something, and two reacted in a telling way. They dropped fangs, hissing.”</p>
<p>The daemon opened and closed the mouth a few times as if to say something. Then gave up.</p>
<p>The Pythoness nodded to herself and smiled. Actually smiled, considered Cataliades.</p>
<p>“The second video portrayed several children and a pair of adults. It looked like a school. The place was… futuristic as well. It seemed that the children were practising with telekinesis. Then a child came close to the camera showing off his dexterity, and smiled. He had little fangs.”</p>
<p>A dense silence of several minutes ensued. </p>
<p>When the vampiress spoke again her voice was wrinkled and tired. “Those videos were genuine and hard to unfold. Several teams of mathematicians, engineers, technicians worked years to understand and unpack their content.”</p>
<p>“Mmm,” it was all Cataliades could say.</p>
<p>“I’m not implying that those are our ancestors. We don’t even know where that contraption came from. What I’m deducing, though, is that in our past or in our future, if not now, vampires ate or will eat, and had or will have children—”</p>
<p>“Future?” interjected Cataliades.</p>
<p>“A few of the scientists who studied the device had interesting, plausible theories on the origin of the thing… in the future.”</p>
<p>“Plausible?”</p>
<p>“It has to do with a quantic vision of… time.”</p>
<p>“That’s the interesting part, I guess.”</p>
<p>“Desmond, don’t be so… conservative. Today we laugh at what doctors believed and practised only a hundred years ago. In one hundred years from now our children we’ll laugh at the shallowness of our current knowledge.”</p>
<p>“And in this picture where do you put Alia and Northman?”</p>
<p>“For the moment, at the centre. I had vision concerning them, and the path they opened is… narrowing, getting blurred in the distance.” The vampiress went to store the device and added, “I know you daemons can go to Faery.”</p>
<p>Cataliades tried to school his features, but the Ancient One’s sight was not easy to fool. He did not reply.</p>
<p>“Go and take Alia,” stated the Pythoness. It was not a request nor an order.It sounded more a proposition he could not reject.</p>
<p>“I’ll owe you whatever you want, but Alia has to come back.”</p>
<p>“Pythia, I get the impression that what you said is not all.”</p>
<p>“Desmond, understand the game and play your cards. You are here for a reason, my friend. I don’t want to disappoint you.”</p>
<p>Cataliades left the old house in the folds of the Lake Erie with the sensation to have met a very different Pythia from the usual ancient vampiress he was accustomed to.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0047"><h2>47. Chapter 47</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p> </p><p>It was at once strange and familiar.</p><p>A sense of dislocation inside whereas she knew the worst was over. Only it was not. A feel of having been deprived of an important part of herself. Only she did not know which one. A dull ache in her whole being, body and mind.</p><p>In a way, it was even boring. Alia had already lived this part and had promised herself never to experience it again. An empty promise? To herself? Really? Despite everything, she laughed.</p><p>Rhiannon turned at the incongruous sound and watched carefully her friend. Alia seemed incongruously relaxed and, now, even in good spirits. Her mind, though, was closed tight and the water fairy caught intense, pained psychic vibes rolling off it. To compound the head injury visible on her temple, she had a swollen eye circled by ruptured blood vessels, and a broken arm. What she could not see, she imagined.</p><p>“May I help you to boost your regeneration?” asked Rhiannon in a low voice.</p><p>Alia nodded once. “Don’t mess with my mind, though.”</p><p>“Wouldn’t dare without your consent, my friend.”</p><p>It took some time to start the cellular process as Rhiannon had to switch itall by herself. All Alia had been able to do, in fact, was to allow her friend to enter her mind and not opposing her workings. The water fairy touched every soreness in her friend’s body and relieved some of her pain, weeping quietly.</p><p>Alia opened her eyes and smiled thinly, touching the fairy’s cheeks. “It’s ridiculous, isn’t it? Now that I need to cry, I can’t.”</p><p>“I’ll do for you, Alia. We cannot let go of this moment without a little weeping, can we?”</p><p>The blond fae’s smile remained in place as a hanging shirt forgotten on a clothesline. “I don’t feel anything. It’s wrong. I should feel… something, I guess.”</p><p>“When you’re ready, you’ll feel as much as you need to.”</p><p>Rhiannon took off the bathrobe from Alia’s body and helped her in the bathtub. Alia asked to be left alone and washed quickly. She was preparing to face the rest of her life, and it felt hard and familiar. Oddly, she felt also reassured. She knew she could do that and wished Eric were with her to help. But it was a fleeting thought as she did not allow herself to dwell on comforting ideas. Now, it was a time of hardening and cleansing. After was a time yet to come, and she could not go there now.</p><p>Rhiannon insisted she fed and chatted idly while Alia sipped her soup. Then, she asked, “Was it who I think?”</p><p>Alia nodded, betrayal and sorrow quickly passing in her gaze. They spent the following couple of hours talking. The talking part was up to Rhiannon, while Alia listened. And even that was hard for her to accomplish without shutting down all her senses and floating in a comfortable nothingness.</p><p>Aengus had lost his mind some time after she had gone back to Louisiana. At the beginning, Rhiannon had not thought much of it. Just pressure and him missing her. Then, he had started to accuse Rhiannon of having let Alia go without stopping her. Of having convinced her to go looking for her vampire. Of having diminished his role and prominence for her. He had blamed her for Alia’s loss of interest in him. And so on. She had tried to make him see reason, but his mind had twisted every word and meaning. What pained Rhiannon was that she had not understood, nor predicted, what he could have done in that wicked condition.</p><p>Alia had stopped listening somewhere in the middle, where Aengus had been feeling neglected or abandoned or whatever. Alia had felt her friend’s angst and, in her poor state of mind, had even tried to soothe her. To no avail.</p><p>“Things happen,” Alia had said at a point. “Shit more often than not.” Or something along those lines, she was having some difficulty to focus.</p><p>Before leaving, Rhiannon touched the other’s forehead with hers and hugged her. They stood embracing for a while, silently. There was not much to say, indeed. Then, the water fae pushed herself away and turned to the door. When she opened the door, Alia let her gaze drift around. The refuge was a simple, wooden shelter. Cold, she noticed when the door shut close again.</p><p>Alia and Chadwick remained in the mountain hut up in the Northern Territories for one more hour. The Dancer had not said much. Alia had appreciated the silence, and the cold. It was a weird reality she was feeling, but not touching. Nothing had weight or smell. Then they left leading up north.</p><p>A long trek through steep, rocky heights was what they had to face given that Alia could not use teleportation. Once again, though, Alia appreciated the time spent climbing and hiking. It allowed her to cleanse the last vestige of thinking she had and prepare for what was to come.</p><p>The fae had not asked where they were going and the Dancer had not offered indications. She followed in his footsteps ignoring the beauty of the landscape, its breathless vastness and the magic lingering in every plant and animal they met. Yet, it all worked on her. The beauty, the space and the magic.</p><p>They walked all night, stopping just to drink and pee.</p><p>Alia would have walked for longer as it meant keeping her mind busy with practical issues. But they reached a rocky ledge and Chadwick stopped. It was dawn. And being on a mountain top meant they towered over peaks and valleys and distant plains. The rising sun felt bigger than its counterpart on Earth, and stronger. Alia sat cross-legged and closed her eyes, letting the star fill her body.</p><p>After fifteen minutes, when she opened her eyes ready for whatever would have to come, she found a dagger and a knife beside her legs. Chadwick was watching her from a boulder’s top poised on the edge of a precipice. His aged face shone with a grin.</p><p>“You’re better, now,” he said.</p><p>Alia smiled back, truly feeling better. She also thought it was not normal, but that consideration was cursory and incomplete. At the moment she lacked the meaning of normal, therefore it could not pass for a good comparison. She raised with a fluid motion. Her legs were strong again, and her arm was straight instead of awkwardly bent. Her head weighed less than the day before but her right eye did not open yet completely. It was more than she had hoped for.</p><p>The little, wrinkled fairy jumped down the boulder as a breeze sweeping acrevasseand waved a hand toward the rocky ledge in front of them.</p><p>“We cross the portal, now. To Earth.”</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p>
  
</p><p>“I was born in Morocco under Moulay Al-Rashid, at the beginning of the Alaouite dynasty. It was a time of wars and a large part of the territory was under local tribes and their lords. I was sold to one of those lords as fresh meat when I was nine years old.</p><p>“He traded in slaves. For everybody: Arabs, Spanish, British. I was sold again when I was twelve years old. And after that again and again, many times. I ended up with a slave mercenary of Moulay Al-Rashid when I was around twenty-eight. He used me brutally for two years. When we arrived to Tangiers to drive the English out of it, I was used as bait along with many other slaves. At that time I was so low I contemplated suicide every day. That’s why I betrayed my master and how I met my maker. A few days after my turning he unleashed me against my master and his men, without restrains. It was a bloodshed.</p><p>“I spent my first years as vampire avenging the baby girl I’ve not been allowed to be and the wreck of a woman I had become. After more than ten years of slaughtering I followed my maker to England and began my true life.</p><p>“I’m not suggesting to kill any one who crosses your path as I did. That had been my way to restore myself, you have to find yours.”</p><p>Adrianne Bakkali had told her story with a blank face and a flat voice. Her almond shaped green eyes had regained their light and strength only when she had lowered her gaze on Alia, who was sitting on an armchair.</p><p>The fae remembered when the queen of Wyoming had appeared on the moonlit landscape that had welcomed her and Chadwick at the other side of the portal. Alia had greeted the vampiress and farewelled her swordmaster on automatic, inhaling the fresh mountain air of the wildly enticing national park they had landed into. A flycar had taken them to a nearby location, then at the queen’s residence. Alia had remained silent, collected.</p><p>At the moment, they were in a living room warmed by a crackling fire in a rustic fireplace. The vampiress had showed sober compassion, without veering in pity or sterile commiseration. And had offered a piece of her life as way of explanation.</p><p>“It’s not the first time,” said Alia hearing her own words as she spoke.</p><p>Adrianne sipped her glass of blood and waited.</p><p>“It happened with my uncle when I was a child. He only touched me and made me feel dirty and wrong, as I could not distinguish his thoughts from mine. My parents did not believe me, only my granny understood and banned her brother from our house. His hands on my body and his disgusting thoughts invaded my mind for years.” Alia’s voice was distant, bleak.</p><p>“Then I grew up hearing all the awful thoughts people had about me, and it was another kind of offence. Not less crippling, though. It lasted till I learned how to shield my mind.” The fae did not pointed at the fact that many of those offending thoughts came from family or friends.</p><p>Alia inhaled and exhaled slowly. Then said, “My first boyfriend raped me and almost killed me. He was under the effect of… withdrawal, and I even justified him with that.” She paused. When she resumed, her words were like beads on a rosary. She touched them without feeling them. “I always justified people who treated me badly. It’s like my uncle’s attentions had soiled me and the image I had of myself. It was my fault if people behaved wrongly with me. I deserved it.” She paused again. “Shit, so twisted.”</p><p>“Then Neave and Lachlan,” the fae said after another long silence. “Their hatred and their sadistic minds freaked me out complete—”</p><p>“You met Neave and Lachlan?” interrupted Adrianna frowning.</p><p>“They tortured me… awfully.”</p><p>“So, are they real? It’s said they’re the most ferocious and evil fairies around.”</p><p>“They were. Niall, Claudine and their warriors killed them.” Alia’s tone was still distant, as if it helped not to give importance to that past. Then she added,“Even a vampire helped.”</p><p>“From what they say, meeting them should have been the most bloody experience of your life,” considered Adrianne matter-of-factly.</p><p>“It was,” the fae confirmed. “But what happened a few days ago is too recent to put in perspective. And it came from… someone I knew. Someone I thought was… a friend. Sort of, anyway.”</p><p>“That’s the deepest wound, I think,” said the vampiress, softly.</p><p>They remained silent for a while. Adrianne drank her blood and Alia finished to nibble the food a waiter had served her on a tray. The fire brightened her face and its flames lulled her in a sleeping state.</p><p>“How did you recover from Neave and Lachlan’s torture?” asked Adrianne.</p><p>Alia yawned. “Mainly… Eric.”</p><p>The vampiress features sweetened and even her voice assumed a softer tune when she said, “Your medicine is on his way, then.”</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>The following weeks were hard but flavourless.</p><p>Alia had limited her movements to and fro their residence in Lake des Allemands and the royal palace in downtown. Preferably with Eric at her side. Now, however, she was inclined to go back working on the field.</p><p>“You’re ready,” repeated Eric watching her critically.</p><p>The fae nodded looking at him sideways. They had not spoken about what had happened in Faery. It was more than three weeks that she slept clinging to him, weeping in his arms and awaking in the middle of the day with yells and fits of cough or apnea. He had given her blood to help her body to recover and her mind to strengthen, pushing calmness through their bond. He had never asked anything.</p><p>Her eye was back to its size and functionality since the first week, her arm was completely healed and the amount of blood she had lost had been replenished many times over. Frankly, her body was as energetic and healthy as before. Her mind, though, was still floating on the surface of things. </p><p>It was almost dawn and they were at home. Alone as they could be without considering the were-guards scattered in the perimeter of the area regarded as strict pertinence of the residence. Or the electronic system which listened and watched the inside of the household almost in every corner. Eric had explained that the recognition technology was adjusted to their voices and faces and, when they were alone, it scrambled the signals giving them privacy. The system would come back to full operational as soon as any different sound or image intruded the house, or if they showed signs of distress.</p><p>At the moment Eric was letting out worry through their bond.</p><p>“My love,” started Alia, “you’ve healed me. It’s time I go back to my life.”</p><p>His pained look spoke for him. “I miss you.”</p><p>They had not made love once since her coming back. Alia reached out and hugged him. Lying her head on his chest she could hear his heart, and the twitches his muscles made as he stroked her back.</p><p>“We can…” she murmured.</p><p>“I’d like to have you back with me, here,” he tapped a finger on her forefront, “the rest will come when you feel like to.”</p><p>Panic grabbed her suddenly, and she froze in his arms. There was rage rolling from his chest to hers. He tightened his embrace and sent his love. But it was a cutting jolt.</p><p>“I miss you, too,” she murmured. When she spoke again, after a lengthy silence, her talking was laboured. Stilted. Eric lifted her in his lap lowering himself on a sofa, embracing her tightly. Waiting.</p><p>She spoke in fits and starts, recounting what had happened since Aengus had appeared at Aine’s house. It was like telling the disgraced story of a cursed heroine who had succumbed to her doomed fate. It did not seem real, nor consistent. Rhiannon had told her Aengus had been in love with her for years, but had been afraid to open up or ask anything. His upbringing, the fae-dae had explained, had not been exactly a loving experience. His mother, bitter and vindictive, had pushed him against his father and grandfather, seeking revenge for a brother and two sisters he had never met. His understanding of love had been tainted, twisted. Alia recounted what she had heard from her friend, what she had refused to feel and what had transpired in that plane of reality she was not interested in revisiting. Then was silent. And somehow quiet.</p><p>Eric cuddled her until her sobs subsided. It was soothing and healing in a way neither medicine nor magic could achieve. Her tears dried and she dozed off for a few minutes.</p><p>When she opened her eyes, his were on her, “I love you.”</p><p>Alia felt the magic of his words and knew they had already filled the void that had gripped her mind since <em>that</em> day.</p><p>“So do I.”</p><p>She clung to his shoulders as not to drown back in her head. His salty scent invaded her nostrils and lapped at her as a solid wave. She inhaled deeper.</p><p>“You’re not weak nor any less for having suffered his violence, lover,” said Eric, his voice husky. “Did he ever disrespect you before?”</p><p>She shook the head. His hands stroked her back pulling her to him.</p><p>“Did you have reasons to suspect that he ever would?”</p><p>None.</p><p>“Did you consider him a… friend?”</p><p>Alia sighed. “Not a friend, frankly. But a person I had had a relaxed and friendly sexual relationship with. During the last three years we had grown somehow apart, our encounters sparse and far between. We never planned anything.”</p><p>That was what she could not understand. What had prevented any caution from her part. They had chosen a path that not included the other, therefore she could not understand his cousin’s expectations.</p><p>“He was… jealous of you, even before we were back together. He came twice to visit me and he didn’t took well the fact that I rejected him. But nothing to make me think…” Her voice faded as her thinking could not find explanation.</p><p>“Wasn’t he behind your life attempts?” asked Eric</p><p>She shook her head. “The last time, he came to my rescue. And when he toldme so I remembered him fighting with a man in the kitchen. I… I… don’t know what to think… he’s family… was, at least.”</p><p>“Family and friends are exactly where the real danger lies. We love and trust them, we don’t think to have to defend from them.”</p><p>Alia cocked her head and watched him in question. His voice had picked up a raw, distant tone.</p><p>“My maker,” started Eric slowly. “He turned me to vent his worst sadistic drives on me. He abused me in any way possible for… centuries. And allowed others to do the same. He kept the bond very tight and unilateral, so that I was deprived of any… sound reaction.”</p><p>Alia held his breath. Only once Eric had mentioned something about those years under his maker’s yoke, yet without going into more detail.</p><p>“When he came to Shreveport, did he…?”</p><p>“Thankfully, the crazed Russian boy was possessive and jealous. He rarely left us alone, and only briefly.”</p><p>“Eric, why didn’t you tell me something, I—”</p><p>“Alia,” he interrupted, “he would have cut you limb by limb, had he only understood how important you were for me. The mere thought of him around you would have driven me crazy.”</p><p>“But we could have—”</p><p>He shushed her with a finger on her lips. “He had already stolen from me hundred of years and the ability to feel…”</p><p>The grey light of the raising sun was screened by the windows and divided into its primary colours by smart filters. Thus, the light filling the drawing room was warm and caressed every surface gently.</p><p>“But you loved Pam, and Karin. You are the most tender father I ever met!”</p><p>Eric laughed with his belly. “You, my little fae, were… are a different love. You stirred… stir up something so deep inside of me… I thought to have lost it forever. You make me alive in a way that nothing, no one else ever did.”</p><p>He had pushed her back to see her face. “I always wanted to protect you from the evil of my world and failed. Now, I know you have to choose and live the consequences of your choices, even if painful. It’s your freedom and my burden. Because to feel your suffering is an unbearable burden for me.”</p><p>Alia listened and watched and let him heal her mind with his words.</p><p>“I only hope that, in the future, you’ll be more careful and, if not for yourself,remember that your wellbeing is central to who I am.” His jaws were clenched as if he were holding on something.</p><p>“I know I’ve been stupid and wea—”</p><p>“Not stupid nor weak. Too trusty and… beautiful. And your beauty, beside this delicious package you walk around with, is the love you have for everybody, everything. And because you wouldn’t hurt a fly, you think all people wouldn’t as well.”</p><p>“Sounds stupid, uh?”</p><p>“No, lover. It’s wonderful. I only hope that you’ll learn to love and protect yourself before everything, everyone.” He cupped her face with his large hand.It was warmer than her skin. “Just a question. Why did you not read his mind to prevent his moves?”</p><p>“I had no reason to expect anything wrong from him, therefore did not think… I know, I know, Chadwick told me already. One never knows from where danger is going to come, therefore I am to be ready, always. Only, I was at home, not in a hostile territory…” she whispered the last sentence. And was silent.</p><p>The truth was that she had feared to know what was inside of his cousin’s mind. It had always been like that with him. At the beginning, she had not been interested as she was too fascinated by his unyielding behaviour. Then, she had been afraid to find unpleasant motives behind his moves, both toward her and their kin. At the end, she was simply unaffected by him, therefore any deeper digging had never crossed her mind.</p><p>“Who’s Chadwick?”</p><p>“A Swordmaster of the Danu,” said Alia. “My teacher and friend. An earth fairy. He’s the one of those who came to look for me and took me to his mountains and to Wyoming.”</p><p>“He’s right, my sweet little fae. You better remember his words.”</p><p>“Family and friends… it’s sad, and I refuse to live like that. I don’t think you will ever be mean to me, nor Pam or Karin. Jason, Michelle, Diantha, Desmond, Rhiannon… I don’t even want to think like that.”</p><p>“Better be on the safe side, though. I’m not saying that any of them will turn against you. But you… be careful.”</p><p>“Eric,” she said louder than she meant to. Though, her spike of anger evaporated as she saw the worried expression on his face, and felt the knot of anxiety in the bond. “I love and trust you, unconditionally.” </p><p>“So do I.”</p><p>The sun now filtered more freely through the light curtains, bathing the room in a yellow bright warmness. Alia watched his beautiful face and the dark blue eyes alight with their own energy. His blond lashes seemed incongruously thick.She could not get used to watching his body under the light of the day, although Eric had explained that the glass in all windows was shielded from all dangerous radiations.</p><p>“Take me to bed, now. It’s late and I need my medicine.” She had begun calling him her medicine since the queen of Wyoming had dubbed him so.</p><p>He stood up, still holding her in his arms, and strode through the room without a word. The hallway was dark and she clung to him forcefully, letting marks in his neck.</p><p>When he lowered her on the bed, she did not let go of him and murmured, “Take me now.” And let her scent loose.</p><p>He nodded and began to unfasten her robe, unhurriedly. His hands explored her body, from her plentiful breasts, yet small in his palms, to her toes. His tongue left a wet trail, his teeth goosebumps and little pricks.</p><p>Alia relaxed nerves and tendons the stiffness of which she had not noticed before, then freed her mind and opened up the bond. Eric was there, at the end of it, intense and exposed.</p><p>She wiggled under his hands and shook her head murmuring, “No.”</p><p>Eric lifted his face and frowned at her. He had discarded his shirt and trousers and watched from between her legs. She sat and reached out to his hair loosening his bun. Her nails etched his head, pulling it to hers.</p><p>“Let me feel you,” she breathed. “Let me feel I’m yours.” Her other hand tightened around his erection without grace.</p><p>He nodded once, pushing her back and letting his full weight on her, knocking her breath away. She spread her legs and pushed her hips up, placing her hands on his buttocks.</p><p>“Claim me,” she whispered to his ear, “and don’t be kind.”</p><p>Eric turned his gaze on her with a wicked smirk. “Here is my fae.”</p><p>He sheathed himself inside her in a strong thrust and stilled at her surprised choke. Her nails dug into his back, drawing blood and sending a thrill to his spine. He wanted that. And he wanted to feel his lover’s body shivering and fighting against his.</p><p>“Don’t stop,” she said biting his shoulder. “Let me feel how much you want me.”</p><p>The vampire unleashed a rage he had not acknowledged till that moment and mauled her, drinking every yell and scratch and push she fought him with. He wanted to carve his place inside her and take her inside of him at the same time. He did not stop until he felt her orgasm rolling through his groin along his. Then he bit her neck and sucked her spicy blood, still pounding her, calling another climax from both. </p><p>When he finally stilled, his hair wet with dripping sweat and his breath ragged, Alia smiled at him and showed blooded teeth.</p><p>“My vampire,” she murmured licking a drop of blood escaping from the corner of her mouth. “You taste delicious.” Her eyes were clear and naked, any dullness washed away.</p><p>Eric smiled too, and only then he realised how starved he had been and for how long. Their scents had knitted together and, in his frenzy, he could not quite tell them apart.</p><p>Perfect. Right. The way it had to be.</p><p>“You’re mine,” he said, “and rest assured I’ll remind you so often enough.”</p><p>“Just fine with me. My memory is short.” Then she waggled her hips and added, “Maybe you want to pull out, now.”</p><p>“That’s my place.”</p><p>“You’ve got other places to reacquaint with.”</p><p>“Right,” he said, and felt the hunger of her flooding his veins and expand through the body. “I think I’m not done with you, today.”</p><p>“Hope you won’t ever be done with me, my love,” she whispered with a light blush masked by the recent exertion. “Because I’m just starting now.”</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>It was when she was browsing through the pile of transcripts of the interviews carried on by Hunter and Leonard at Camp Beauregard in Alexandria, that she felt something different inside.</p><p>It was more than a month and a half after she had resumed her ordinary routine. Bob Rock, the stocky big-nosed werewolf appointed to the afternoon shift, stood leaning to the French window open on the balcony and watched Alia. She was under the late sun reading papers on the tablet. Something seemed to move deep in her belly. She focused on the transcripts.</p><p>Hunter had discovered the existence of a human secret society called HumanFirst, among lower officials at the military base. It was apparentlyorganised in small cells of up to ten individuals, and their goal seemed to be the eradication of weres from their ranks and vampires from their state. At the moment there was not any substantial lead, just repetitive thoughts with rant-like quality in several specialists, corporals and a sergeant major. Alia typed a note proposing to approach some of them outside the base for a deep dive into their minds. She sent the note to Hunter and a copy to Ford, asking the latter for an inconspicuous way to investigate among the local pack. She offered to accompany him. Again, something stirred in her lower belly.</p><p>“Hello,” Alia answered on the first ring of her tablet and smiled at her vampire.</p><p>“I’ve just noticed that my fae is not on my bed. How so?”</p><p>“I had a lot of papers to read, and needed some sun. When do you come?”</p><p>Eric raked a hand over his hair. “What about you coming back home and greeting me properly, then we decide what to do? Wasn’t today your day off?”</p><p>An hour later Alia landed on the western dock of their residence. That something in her gut was still there, as a comforting presence. Warm. Joyful.</p><p>Eric waited inside the house, watching her striding over the long deck and the patio.</p><p>“What is it?” he asked.</p><p>“What?” she asked letting him lift her to his face.</p><p>“I feel something in the bond. From you.”</p><p>“Mmm. I feel something in the lower belly,” she said smiling. “You should check…”</p><p>They made love at length and slowly. Since they had resumed making love, it had become a daily urge to reconnect and reaffirm their mutual possession and belonging. Sometimes it was hurried and intense, some other times vigorous tending to rough, or slow and mindful. Their bond made it easy to fine-tune their drives without any conscious effort, this way letting their feelings flow freely from each other. It was what she needed to restore ownership over her own body and desires. It was what he needed to renew his claim and affinity to her whole being.</p><p>Then, that something inside her moved again. It was not quite a physicalmovement but a weird awareness on her part.</p><p>And everything fell apart.</p><p>Horribly.</p><p>As a nightmare one had just awakened from only to discover reality was much worser than that.</p>
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<a name="section0048"><h2>48. Chapter 48</h2></a>
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<p>This time Karin backed Pamela without reservation.</p>
<p>More than two and a half months had passed since Alia had been raped and no news of a dead Aengus had come from Faery. Niall had confirmed that all their efforts to find their relative had not yet produced any substantial result, beyond restricting his grandchild’s wiggle room. He expected his fall any time.</p>
<p>Eric, who until that moment had focused on helping his fae to be whole again,was losing his grams of patience and, since a few days, even his presence of mind. His temper swung from upset to raging, passing through several minor dispositions of mind which increased his volatility.</p>
<p>“We don’t know what fairies are doing,” repeated Pamela curtly. “At any rate, whatever they’re doing, it’s not effective. Or Aengus has friends, spies who help him to hide and, possibly, to plan whatever his twisted mind comes up with.”</p>
<p>“And now that Alia has reasonably recovered,” pushed on Karin, “we don’t have any more restrains.”</p>
<p>Eric paced the room slowly, then stopped to watch his children. “It’s not that simple. Alia wants to be present and maybe it’s not the best situation I want to find myself into.”</p>
<p>“She’s got a right to be there,” Karin countered. “It will be cathartic or, at least, conclusive.”</p>
<p>“If her kin are right,” considered Pamela, “he’s got not much room in Faery. We should sneak into his <em>territory</em> here on Earth and strike when he shows up. The more we wait, the more he’ll be able to reorganise and counterattack.”</p>
<p>“Two and a half months are plenty of time to regroup. We’ve already lost that train. He’s waiting for our move,” said Eric.</p>
<p>“Better,” grunted Karin. “He’ll be waiting for our response and wearing out in the meantime. A tired adversary is inclined to make mistakes.”</p>
<p>“Maker,” Pamela tried to catch his attention.</p>
<p>“Alia is coming,” said the vampire flatly.</p>
<p>Eric’s personal library at the royal palace was a stately room the late queen Sophie-Anne had used for receiving friends and kings. Eric had annexed it to one of his private sitting rooms and used it as a family room. Even Latsis hesitated before entering the king’s private quarters and guards relied heavily on cameras and other electronic devices to ensure surveillance and protection.</p>
<p>The fae walked into the room wearing a loose, long sleeved robe that floated around her body at each step. She got up on her toes to kiss the vampire and smiled to his children.</p>
<p>“Is this a family reunion or a war council?” she asked.</p>
<p>Pamela snorted and replied, “Were it for me, it would be already a post-war reconstruction or, better, a war spoils’ division.”</p>
<p>Alia nodded and sat down on an elegant, cushioned stool beside a low table parading ancient ostrich eggs.</p>
<p>“Desmond left a message this morning,” she started. “A fairy, my friend, contacted him.”</p>
<p>“Are you sure is she your friend?” asked Pamela.</p>
<p>Alia pretended to examine the delicate decoration on the eggs. “Some time ago I had asked this friend of mine to… contact some other friends of mine outside official channels. To let me know how things were… evolving in Faery, and so on.”</p>
<p>“And?” prodded Karin after a congruous silence.</p>
<p>“He reported a lot of info that I was not in a position to handle properly,” Alia explained. “Only now, after I spoke to Rhiannon back in Faery, I begin to understand… something more of fairy politics.”</p>
<p>“This friend of yours… can you read her? Is she trusty?” insisted Pamela.</p>
<p>“Yes and yes. He’s trusty and uninvolved in any power struggle.”</p>
<p>“Who is he?” asked Eric.</p>
<p>“I met him when I was…. Sookie, and again in Faery. He works for Niall. Mainly. Doesn’t like Aengus, if that’s what you meant.” Alia put back on the table an egg she was inspecting carefully.</p>
<p>“So what? Do you need an omelette or are you ready to say something?” blurted out Pamela.</p>
<p>“Pamela!” Karin’s voice boomed in the large room.</p>
<p>“I’ve had enough of this. Seriously.”</p>
<p>“She’s right, Karin. I… stalled enough,” conceded Alia. “But I needed time… also to understand.”</p>
<p>“And if Alia needs some more it’s not a problem,” Karin addressed her sister sternly. “We can proceed without her, if she’s not… ready.”</p>
<p>“I am,” said the fae. “I think I am.”</p>
<p>Pamela approached Alia and spoke with a low voice. “Can’t wait any longer to crush that shit, Alia. I didn’t mean to push you or to pretend that everything is fine now or… whatever.”</p>
<p>Alia smiled to the vampiress and mouthed a silent<em> I know</em>. Then exhaled and continued, “Niall is at loggerheads with Aengus and Dillon, and this latter is on the outs with Niall and Aengus. All of them for different reasons. Aengus, in turn, is weaving his web to the throne. However, the bottomline is that everyone pursues different agendas. I was caught inside their machinations without participating in any of their schemes.”</p>
<p>“How can we benefit from it?” It was Pamela asking the question and watching carefully the fae. Since she had come to New Orleans a few days earlier the vampiress had noticed a certain aloofness between the fae and her maker. They were kind and contained, but detached. Very unusual for them, she observed. And it was clear that it was some days they did not have sex. She waited for Alia to answer, noting the light folds of her fae dress rippling as if a breeze passed inside of it.</p>
<p>“I have what he wants,” stated the fae finally. “He will come out of his hide-hole and I’ll kill him.”</p>
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<p>***</p>
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<p>“You’re not helping, Eric.”</p>
<p>The vampire did not turn. He was watching over the window, the deck, the lake and, far away, the city lights. But he did not see anything, did not feel much. Her words kept spinning in his empty mind as tank’s tracks, levelling everything in their wake. Four nights before Ludwig had confirmed Alia’s assumption. She was pregnant.</p>
<p>The fae had been horrified, then worried and desperate. Within a few hours the cycle had started again. Horrified, worried, desperate. And again. It was like that since then.</p>
<p>And him? He had felt like crushed by an unbearable weight, speechless and stunned. Unfortunately, he had not closed his end of the bond in time to hide it from her. After that she had retracted and cut the bond. It had felt as a sudden stab to him.</p>
<p>“Should I get an abortion?”</p>
<p>It was her question since Ludwig had left. She did not want to be responsible for keeping or erasing the life that had come out of the violence. She did not want to choose.</p>
<p>“Tell me what I should do, ‘cause I don’t know what to do.”</p>
<p>But Eric was not able to offer a choice, either. And they had drifted apart, each one resenting the other’s refusal to choose. Days had gone by. Choiceless.</p>
<p>Pamela and Karin had left before midnight, and they had flown home with a flycar. He stood silent.</p>
<p>“Talk to me, Eric. I can’t stand any longer your silence.”</p>
<p>He turned and stared at her. She had started to dress with loose outfits to mask a swollen belly that was not yet showing. Her face was hollow and grim, as her attitude.</p>
<p>The vampire shrugged and said, “It seems that you finally made up your mind.”</p>
<p>“Did I?” asked Alia in a whisper. “I haven’t noticed.”</p>
<p>“You said you’d kill Aengus.”</p>
<p>“That’s not a choice. It’s the only thing I can do… to prevent any worse coming from him.” Mindlessly the fae put a hand over her lower belly. “I mean, what should I do with these children…”</p>
<p>“It’s up to you.”</p>
<p>“Is it? Really?” Alia went out on the patio and sat down on a sofa. “Is it up to me to decide if letting them live or ending them before my life is completely fucked up? This decision affects you too… in a way or another.” She was whispering.</p>
<p>Eric was silent.</p>
<p>“Or have you already made up your mind and won’t stay with a woman bearing children from another man? That’s the point, Eric. I felt your reaction and I see how you… disappeared.” The fae was not looking at him. “You’ve been so supportive and understanding till… this. This is your limit, I guess. Raped yes, pregnant no.” Her voice was a weak breath. Colourless.</p>
<p>Eric forced his legs to follow her out on the patio, bend to sit at her side and stay there against their will. Then he opened his side of the bond and leant on the backrest.</p>
<p>He spoke, tentatively. “I don’t hold you responsible for any of this, and I’m not rejecting you. Never.”</p>
<p>“How is it that I feel shunned away, then?”</p>
<p>He took her hand in his. “Because I feared what could come out of this. And reacted poorly. Fear is never a wise counsellor.”</p>
<p>“I’m scared too. And I have these two inside. I feel them.” She sighed, her eyes still lost somewhere unfocused ahead of her. “I don’t want them, they are the fruit of a violence… I don’t want them. But… but… they are here, now. They have no responsibilities, either. They’ve been called to life, unwillingly on my part, unbeknownst to them. Yet, if I stop them, I would feel guilt, unworthy… I don’t know what I’d feel exactly, but nothing good.”</p>
<p>She paused and inhaled deeply, as if to find the strength to say what it had to be said aloud. He squeezed her hand and let his mixed up state of mind flow through the bond, without amendments. She continued, hardly noticing what came from him.</p>
<p>“If I let them come into being in this situation, I won’t love them because they’d remind me the way they’d been conceived.</p>
<p>“And is it right, I wonder, to call a child into a life without love? I could even hate them, both because of their father and because I would have lost you. Because that’s what will happen to us: we will part. If not physically, surely our hearts won’t be together in such a life. And I don’t want to lose you.”</p>
<p>She let the words sit between them and felt a lump in the throat.</p>
<p>“Has it already happened, Eric? Did I lose you because of that jerk?”</p>
<p>“No, lover. You cannot lose me, but…”</p>
<p>“But what? ‘Cause it looks like that’s exactly what happened.”</p>
<p>“… but, I’ve got my fears, my shortcomings to face and it hurts not to be everything to you.”</p>
<p>“What do you mean? What shortcomings you’re talking about? It’s me who went to Faery thinking of it as a family gathering, it’s me who allowed my cousin to overwhelm me, it’s—”</p>
<p>“Stop with that non-sense,” snapped Eric ungraciously. “It’s nothing you can blame on you. Nothing.” He turned her head his way, caressing her cheek. “I won’t ever be able to give you children, that’s my flaw. And I know how much it would mean for you. And, yes, I fear you could decide to keep these children and they will always remind me of my failure at you, and the way they’d have been put in your life. And I know I should be above all this, but I’m not.”</p>
<p>He stood still. His own words sloshing inside him.</p>
<p>Alia moved closer to the vampire and whispered into his ear, “You’re everything to me, Eric. My desire of children has faded away long ago, as I realised that children are not a selfish accomplishment to correct parents’ mistakes or to give sense to a dull life.” She paused, hearing again her own words. It was the first time she had let them out without any sugarcoating.</p>
<p>“Children should be a love by-product,” she added. “Literally, a fruit of love. You’re my love and the only children I would choose to bear are yours. There are ways… and we could explore them with time.”</p>
<p>“Lover, you know it doesn’t work—”</p>
<p>“Ugh, quiet,” interrupted the fae. “You’ve already got two children. We can have our own, if we want. We could adopt a child and raise him or her as our own, then you’ll turn him, if he wants. He would be ours because we would have chosen and loved him.” She paused, then continued locking her eyes on his and opening her side of the bond. “I don’t want these children any more than you do. But I feel them, and I can’t stop their… joy at being alive. Feel it with me. How can I stop this?”</p>
<p>Eric welcomed the sudden rush of emotions coming from her. Worry, desperation, guilt, then elation, curiosity, awe. It was all intertwined and fluttering around in a disordered whirlwind.</p>
<p>“Can you feel them?” she asked wincing in a sort of embarrassment.</p>
<p>He focused closing his eyes. “Curiosity… awe… is it them?”</p>
<p>She nodded. “Yes. Do you understand why I… don’t know what to do?”</p>
<p>Tears finally streaked her face veiling eyes and thoughts. Eric embraced her, absorbing her fighting feelings and unleashing his. It was confusing and liberating. Yet, it did not bring a final decision nor the absolution from the angry thoughts both had nurtured for days.</p>
<p>After a long time Alia spoke again. “I’ll ask Desmond to help me. Or Rhiannon. I think… I think to have the children and give them to someone who could raise and love them as they deserve. I know I can’t be that person, but we could find someone in Faery, or among the dae community. They will be fae, and probably telepath, they will be fine with a family who understand their… heritage.”</p>
<p>It was a way to postpone the problem to another day and another state of mind, but neither of them could give more than that at the moment. Eric agreed and continued to hold her in his arms, gently rocking her frail body against his. He felt better and unworthy at the same time.</p>
<p>“My little fae, I love you and I’m sorry not to be up to the task.”</p>
<p>She smiled thinly. “Your task is to love me, and you’ve always risen to the occasion. Just don’t cut me out from you, never again.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>March marked the beginning of Spring. Yet, no one told the country of Wyoming of that and the temperature was around twenty degrees Fahrenheit in the middle of the night. It did not snow and the moonlight washed the silent, eerie landscape of the mountains north of the Shoshone Lake. </p>
<p>Adrianne Bakkali wore an utilitarian jumpsuit whose fabric was a grade three anti-radiation protection, assumed the same pattern of the surrounding area in a second or less, resisted to bullets and medium projectiles shrapnel and so on for two hundred twenty kB in the instruction manual’s file. The helmet she wore had another three hundred kB of specifications. The uniform was a by-product of aerospace engineering and she had dozens of them. At the moment, she was among her longterm mercenaries, both humans and weres wearing the same uniform, holding their position at the side of the only passage winding down from the portal to Faery. This latter was behind a rocky ledge at the top of a minor peak.</p>
<p>Pamela and Eric were perched up the crag at some distance from each other, while Chadwick and Karin some metres behind Alia, Cataliades and Robert Rock, lying flat at both sides of the path.</p>
<p>Alia wore a white fur coat Adrianne had borrowed her, though she was beyond feeling any weather but the coldness of her determination. The daemon and the young werewolf flanked her silently.</p>
<p>Cataliades had been contacted by Aengus a week earlier, following the message of Preston Pardloe who informed Alia about Aengus’ whereabouts. Niall and Dillon had been hunting down the fairy with meticulous care, restricting the rows of allies and hiding places Aengus could count on, driving him to change his plans repeatedly. The daemon had casually let slip that Alia had returned from Faery pregnant and intended to give birth to her child in her country. Aengus, who believed to be hunted down by his family for his almost succeeded attempt on his father’s life, seemed to ignore the crime he had committed against his cousin, and -Preston had just confirmed- pursued his plan to kill all those involved in the conspiracy to clean his name and have no witnesses.</p>
<p>The lawyer, in fact, reported that he appeared surprised and utterly content to know of Alia’s pregnancy and offered to marry her and welcome their child together. A few days later, Rhiannon and Chadwick also confirmed that Aengus did not acknowledge any wrongdoing on his part, and even thought that having a child would have saved him from his father’s wrath. The dae-fae expressed some concern for her former friend’s state of mind, which seemed to have lost any sense of reality. His mind, she had said, resembled a twisted knot of half thoughts on the verge of implosion.</p>
<p>The meeting had been arranged for Aengus to turn himself in, giving up any political office he might hold in exchange for his life. </p>
<p>“What the fuck!” had spat Alia to his godfather. “Has he gone mad? What trick is it?”</p>
<p>“Rhiannon believes he’s really out of his mind. It seems he has conspired against his father involving you in the plot.”</p>
<p>“Me? What the fuck!”</p>
<p>“You’re repeating yourself, dearest.”</p>
<p>“Sorry. I… I… Did Dillon believe him? The evidence is satisfactory to him?”</p>
<p>“Trying to involve you in the scheme has been his mistake. It convinced neither Niall nor Dillon and, after Chadwick and Rhiannon reported how they had found you, they decided to put an end to his games.”</p>
<p>“Niall did not mention it those times he came to visit me after…”</p>
<p>“Guilt and regret have finally put a dent in his self-esteem,” had then stated Cataliades.</p>
<p>“Does he really believe that Dillon or Niall will ever forgive him? Did he not remember how his late brother paid his betrayal?”</p>
<p>“My child, I don’t know much of his mind’s working and, really, I’m not that much interested either,” had said the daemon. “I regret and will never forgive myself not to have been able to protect you. That’s all. For the rest, I’ll play along. I have already arranged with Niall for his apprehension, would ever Aengus escape Eric’s punishment.”</p>
<p>“Eric’s?”</p>
<p>“Niall thinks you would prefer Eric to administer justice in your behalf,”had confirmed the daemon.</p>
<p>“Why so? Now that I don’t think of him as my family, I’m perfectly able to show him my retribution.”</p>
<p>“But,” had objected Cataliades, “you’re with child, and already have been through a lot.”</p>
<p>“Even Claudine was pregnant when faced Neave and Lachlan. Pregnancy is not a disease.”</p>
<p>“You’re right, obviously. But the delicate balance between life and death suggests to restrain your enthusiasm.” The daemon had paused, then added, “And Eric has to thank him for the attempts on his life.”</p>
<p>At the moment, therefore, Alia stood facing the portal in Wyoming under a cold, dark sky and her mind mirrored the weather. Grim and worsening. Aengus crossed the portal at the time agreed, half past midnight. Alone.</p>
<p>As soon as the light from the portal dissipated, Aengus inhaled a lungful of cold air and explored his surroundings. Cataliades took a step forward and nodded in greeting . The fairy acknowledged his presence and, towering over him, saw Alia standing a few metres behind. His face lit up and his features assumed a soft edge.</p>
<p>“Alia, I didn’t expect to see you. It’s a wonderful surprise,” he said.</p>
<p>The fae studied his face and his mindprint, wondering if she had ever seen him so restrained, almost subdued for his standards. Then she took a peek at his mind and choked a scream. It radiated red-purple bursts of light and showed an insane vortex of thoughts’ vestiges. None coherent nor consistent. Now his brittle calm seemed ominous.</p>
<p>Alia wanted to ask him what had happened to his mind, why had he done what he did, what was he thinking to do now. But then everything seemed so meaningless and distant. She just wanted him dead and forgotten. Possibly erased from her life since the first day she had met him. She waved a hand to dismiss him and turned to leave.</p>
<p>“Where do you think to go, fae?” Aengus’ voice echoed eerily. This was his usual cold tone.</p>
<p>Alia glanced at him briefly and shook her head. She did not feel like saying anything. Indeed, what was to be said?</p>
<p>“Fae, you’re mine as it is the child you bear. Come here.”</p>
<p>Erichad already quietly flown down from his hiding and had poised himself for the impending fight a couple of metres behind the fairy. Then Pamela jumped down from the ledge drawing a sword and a lasgun.</p>
<p>Aengus heard the faint hiss of air at his side and turned drawing a scimitar and a dagger.</p>
<p>“Daemon, is it a trap?” he asked.</p>
<p>Cataliades had sidled up to Alia but his voice sounded farther away.</p>
<p>“Not a trap, Aengus. It’s your final appointment,” said the daemon.</p>
<p>The fairy, though, had not waited for an answer and had already swung his sword swiping the area where Pamela had been a fraction of a second earlier. Eric jumped over him hitting his back with a kick and rolled to his side. Their heights and weights were comparable and the vampire wanted to hear the fairy’s bones crushing under his hands. In fact, he had no weapons beyond his impeccable intent to kill him.</p>
<p>Aengus winced as the blow arched his back and released his war smell, at once turning to the nearest fighter and swirling his scimitar at the vampiress’ head. Pamela inhaled the spicy scent and hurled herself toward the fairy, aiming the sword at his belly. Eric raised from his vault and mentally devised the trajectory of the fairy’s dagger, reckoning the impact area between his arm and hip. He nodded to himself and left the area unguarded, lunging for the fairy’s throat. Vertebrae breaking, spinal cord exposed, blood flooding. That was his hands’ desire. No thoughts clouded his purpose, no feeling outside the sheer resolve to feel Aengus’ life oozing out from his fingers.</p>
<p>Afterward Eric tried to understand what had happened in those instants, but his focus had been on the fairy warrior and had not noticed that his fae had hurled herself between him and Aengus’ dagger.</p>
<p>When all the action came to a halt, Aengus laid down with a sword deep in his stomach, his windpipe compressed into a twisted mass of tissue and bones’ chips and blood. Eric felt Alia’s weight over his body, her blood gushing out from her belly and over him.</p>
<p>He did not hear Cataliades’ scream, nor Chadwick’s yell or Karin’s curse. Everything had stopped around him, inside him. Alia stared at him holding her abdomen and weeping silently. He forced his wrist on her mouth and felt her sucking his blood too weakly. Then he slashed his arm deeply and let it bleed over her open mouth.</p>
<p>Her heart was slowing down and her eyes were already veiled and unfocused.</p>
<p>“Lover, are you so selfish? Would you really leave me like that?”</p>
<p>In truth he did not remember to have uttered those or other words. He just felt her presence in the bond receding and weakening.</p>
<p>And everything was fading away with her.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0049"><h2>49. Chapter 49</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Eric was immersed in his personal tragedy and the main feature it showed was durability. It regenerated itself every night as he rose and accompanied him till the next dawn with different flavours and quirks. During the day, as he tried in vain to rest, it assumed further dimensions and nuances. An ancillary effect was uncertainty.</p>
<p>Pamela had died.</p>
<p>Her head had rolled beside her maker and stopped a few centimetres from his feet as he was trying to revive his lover with his blood. He had not noticed it till much later. After Alia had passed out, after Niall had crossed the portal, after the old fairy had picked up his grandchild and took her away to Faery, after Karin had yelled and cried trying to put her sister’s head back on her neck. After someone (Adrianne, maybe) had pushed a blood bag to him.</p>
<p>There is only a given amount of pain a mind can sustain without breaking. Eric was well beyond that limit and could not include the loss of his child into his current consciousness. It was only the day after that he acknowledged that Pamela was dead.</p>
<p>Pamela was dead and Alia was dying. That was the picture of his life at the moment. He could not elaborate further, nor could think of anything to do. It was Chadwick, his fae’s friend, who came back from Faery a few hours later and reported that Alia was still between life and death.</p>
<p>Life and death. Such a short distance from one another Eric was afraid to ask a question or make a move. He just wanted to stop everything and have some time to think it through. But time would not stop. He was aware of it as Karin appeared often, silently beside him. As the moon rose and grew a little more up in the sky. As Cataliades called regularly to say things, mostly meaningless for him.</p>
<p>Until the night a full moon occupied most of the window’s pane of the study in his residence. White-yellowish and brilliant. Eric would have sworn he could see craters and valleys on its surface.</p>
<p>Dillon had asked permission to land on his residence’s premises and had arrived with Cataliades and another fairy the night of the full moon. Eric had jumped out on the deck and had run to the landing pad where their flycar was hovering.</p>
<p>Something had called him faintly. But unmistakably.</p>
<p>“I did all I could,” said the female fairy whose face appeared hiding behind churning waters. “Niall died giving her all his life force, but she has not yet come to from her… sleep. We—”</p>
<p>Eric had already snatched Alia’s body from Dillon’s arms and cuddled her tightly. His mind was caressing her tiny presence inside him, sending his longing for her.</p>
<p>“—cannot do anything more for her, and she’s not taking well Faery now that Niall is gone. I think she needs—”</p>
<p>Eric just wanted to be let alone with her. He nodded once, twice. Then turned and strolled inside the house, oblivious to any one, any thing around him.</p>
<p>“—to be with you.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It took two nights for Alia to come to.</p>
<p>Eric watched over her, sending his mind to lure her back to him and lending her his strength through his blood. The bond guided her back to him.</p>
<p>“Hi, my love,” were her first words the night she opened her eyes and found herself in her bed with a watchful vampire at her side. Her eyes clouded, her body still weak, her mind curled inside his asking to be held. And Eric hugged and soothed her in the stillness of their shared minds.</p>
<p>Afterward, when Alia’s eyes had cleared, dr Ludwig tried to understand what had transpired.</p>
<p>“You remember everything?” croaked the hobbit-like creature hovering around Alia’s body from the stool she was perched on.</p>
<p>The fae instinctively retracted under her unyielding gaze. Even if she had benefited from the doctor’s ministrations many times over, her presence was not reassuring.</p>
<p>“In a way. I remember the fighting, my injury, their scream, I needed to be with them,” recalled Alia. “My great grandfather took me to Faery and helped me… Rhiannon… everything, I think.”</p>
<p>“You needed to be with them?” repeated the healer from her position over her abdomen. She had just uncovered her and was smelling her belly and her sex.</p>
<p>“Yes. They panicked and I went to sooth them.”</p>
<p>“Mmm,” the doctor’s thick, wavy hair tickled the fae where it touched her body, but Ludwig ignored her nervous wiggling. “They were scared—”</p>
<p>“Who panicked?” asked Eric.</p>
<p>“—and you had to calm them down,” continued Ludwig at the same time.</p>
<p>“Yes. They respond to my state and—”</p>
<p>“—you feel their state,” completed the healer, nodding her approval.</p>
<p>Eric began to understand and fell silent. The lightness and wellness he had experienced since Alia had woken up had somehow erased the previous days of pain and fear. Now reality had come back in every detail.</p>
<p>The doctor wiggled her nose, then licked Alia’s belly till the navel and savoured it loudly.</p>
<p>“Ludwig,” the vampire’s voice cut the air as a blade. “You’re playing with your life.”</p>
<p>The healer did not flinch at his threat and continued her inspection.</p>
<p>“What…?” the fae asked the creature, then turned to Eric. “The children. They panicked when I was injured and I had to take care of it.”</p>
<p>“Mmm. You retracted inside, then,” stated Ludwig smacking her lips.</p>
<p>Alia nodded. Eric frowned.</p>
<p>“How have you done it, Northman?” asked the healer while going through the content of her bag.</p>
<p>“How have I done what?” he snapped annoyed.</p>
<p>“Knocked her up, Northman. I never heard of a fae impregnated by a vampire. A daemon, a human, some other creatures, probably in legends, but never by a vampire. Not even a joke about that. I’m pretty sure.”</p>
<p>“You value so low your life, hobbit or whatever are you,” spat Eric, “I’m going to satisfy your death wish.”</p>
<p>Alia put a hand over Eric’s arm and watched the diminutive doctor.</p>
<p>“What have you just said?” she asked, tentatively.</p>
<p>“That I never met a pair like you two: dense and deaf!”</p>
<p>The vampire was about to grab her by the neck when Alia’s hand squeezed his arm in a spasm and the doctor’s words opened up in his mind. <em>Never by a vampire</em>.</p>
<p>Unfazed by their stillness, Ludwig took Eric’s wrist and waved toward the fae’s belly. “Drip some blood over here, just to see their reactiveness.”</p>
<p>Alia’s grip on his arm had deepened, her nails etching their way through his skin.</p>
<p>“Eric,” she whispered.</p>
<p>The vampire bit his wrist and let trickle a few drops over her navel, staring at it as if in trance. Within a few seconds something stirred. Circular moves like ripples. Like something tracing a path, reaching out, caressing from inside. Alia’s belly was alive.</p>
<p>“Four months I’d say. And pretty enthusiast too,” nodded Ludwig. “They need more blood, Northman. Your blood. How long since last time you gave some to her?”</p>
<p>His throat was dry like gravel. “Four days, I think. When she was stabbed.” As he spoke he shifted his wrist to Alia’s mouth, and she latched onto it automatically.</p>
<p>Ludwig nodded. “Good. See to give her a few drops every day. Those babies are ravenous and grow faster than average fairies, or humans.” The doctor patted the vampire’s arm and watched them both critically. “Why are you weeping, fae? Everything is fine, they’re strong and growing finely. You will be a happy whale in a couple of months.”</p>
<p>Alia sat on the bed. Still weeping, nodding and thinking that life had a wicked sense of humour if it could conceive pregnancies, violences, deaths in such close succession as to hurt and elate at the same time. She locked eyes with Eric and read the same disorientation.</p>
<p>Their bond, though, resonated with curiosity and joy. Life was stronger than pain, after all. Those curiosity and joy came from tiny sprouts they had planted inadvertently. Was it possible to create such wonders without even knowing it?</p>
<p>“The night we bonded, then,” Alia said wiping a last tear.</p>
<p>Eric nodded and let go of the turmoil that had sent his mind whirling like a drunken dancer since a few months. Then fear crept up from the guts up, as a high tide without timing. What if they had excised those lives? What if those wee specks of life had ceased to exist on their own without them knowing that they were theirs? Eric’s thoughts were not lined up in a coherent way, but popped up randomly as puny needles of his conscience. Was it really true? Could the healer be mistaken?</p>
<p>“Is it truly us?” was all he asked to no one in particular.</p>
<p>“I should have known before,” replied Alia after a while. “They react to your presence with elation, movement, interest. And you feel them. Would you if they weren’t yours? Bonded to you by the beginning?”</p>
<p>“I don’t know…”</p>
<p>At a certain point Ludwig must have left, and they were alone. Trying to reassess their life in a way that could make room for the unbelievable, unpredictable wonder they were experiencing. </p>
<p>“Karin and Pam will go crazy,” said Alia out of the blue. “Niall would have loved to hear…”</p>
<p>It was a moment of confusion, then Eric realised that Alia did not know of Pamela’s passing. She had wakened a few hours earlier and had not been told anything. Was it the right time to tell her that life and death had swapped place in front of them, filling an empty space with new hope?</p>
<p>“They would spoil them shamelessly,” said Eric instead.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>In a month life overwhelmed Alia and Eric again with its demands, needs, routines. But nothing was ever the same. Pamela had left a vacancy in Alia’s heart and no compassionate thought lightened her burden. The fae could not ignore that emptiness as Eric and Karin seemed to do.</p>
<p>“It’s not callousness nor avoidance,” said Karin one night the two of them were reviewing all the evidence gathered against HumanFirst. “After a couple of centuries one sees a lot of people going away. One has to learn a way not to crush under that continuous straining.</p>
<p>“My way is to honour loved ones’ absence by doing something they would have liked or done themselves given the chance.”</p>
<p>The little vampiress’ face appeared drained but somehow also collected. It was the look of a hard acceptance.</p>
<p>Karin continued in a dull tone, “Eric’s way is to recapitulate their life and take home one or two lessons from it. This is what he’s doing at the moment. His frequent trips to Arkansas are not to teach Kainz anything, but to immerse himself in Pam’s life and absorb as much as possible of those more private aspects that were not evident.</p>
<p>“When he learns enough, he will incorporate the lesson in his heart and make peace with her disappearance. You have to find your way, fae.”</p>
<p>Alia looked at her friend and wanted to say something. Though nothing appropriate came up. Her equilibrium was simply waggling from pain to bliss, passing through guilt and resignation and, occasionally, hatred. Not healthy. Not useful either.</p>
<p>Meanwhile Alia thought better to work harder and spend one or two afternoons a week with Rhiannon or Chadwick. Given that Faery was not favourable to her vampiric pregnancy, her friends crossed the portal in Bon Temps when she stayed in Shreveport. Slowly she let go of the anger her friend’s death had left her with and focused on her swollen belly and the HumanFirst investigation.</p>
<p>For the moment being, in fact, Alia decided to carry on with the schedule Pamela and she had sketched during her recovering from her cousin’s violence. A pregnant woman, indeed, was a perfect disguise that did not elicit worries and favourably pushed people to be polite and good humoured. Bob Rock, the were-guard Ford had definitively assigned to her security detail, acted as loving husband or thoughtful brother as she read soldiers from Camp Beauregard or Fort Polk, a training centre upgraded with state-of-the-art laboratories duringthe 2030s. The story taking shape from her investigation was appalling and, in a twisted way, gave Alia the means to find a balance between life and death, present and past.</p>
<p>Weeks passed by with a swinging rhythm. Some days were slow, intense; others rushed. Her mood followed the same pattern.</p>
<p>“Alia, you’re travelling too much and I’m afraid you’re exerting your body beyond its ability to—”</p>
<p>“Eric!” she stopped him before he continued his usual refrain. She was seven months pregnant and could not feel healthier, stronger and happier. Her vampire, in turn, worried about her health, security and mood. Surely influenced by the horrific findings her investigation (now pursued by an inter-kingdom task-force led by Karin, Alan Ford and Russell Edgington) had amassed in a few months, and some further deaths caused by the so called HumanFirst organisation (Carolinas’ lieutenant and two Arizona’s underlings).</p>
<p>The military personnel involved spread over several countries and had secret labs were they broke lone or weak specimens, mostly werewolves uprooted from different territories, with sadistic procedures. Their conditioning turned them into crazy killers, oblivious to their own life beyond the goal assigned. Which was murdering the higher number of vampires and fellow weres, according to sketchy plans devised by the single cell that had produced the deranged executioner.</p>
<p>Murders appeared disjoined and without a rational scheme. That made harder to find the assailants’ origin and the investigation progressed slowly. It would have been a long, underground hunt. </p>
<p>“Alia,” replied calmly the vampire. “Our children are not yet born and have already travelled through most of Amun countries.”</p>
<p>The fae took Eric’s arms and draped them around her shoulders and over her swollen belly. “You’re exaggerating, my love. Pam and I outlined this investigation during my recovery and I need to complete it in her memory.”</p>
<p>Eric stilled with his hands over her roundness, then sighed and never again tried to talk Alia out of her commitment. They naturally found other topics to bicker over and never lost a chance to make peace exerting the same body whose wellness so much worried the vampire. Honestly, once or twice Eric had raised a question about their lovemaking and the fact that her belly had two dwellers who occupied a lot of space. Alia’s stern answer had been that what made her happy would have delighted also their children. The matter settled, they had enjoyed their family orgasms whenever the occasion was suitable, and even in a few less favourable situations.</p>
<p>Ludwig followed Alia’s gestation with recurring visits, including tests and exams to start a study on vamp-fae reproduction. News of the extraordinary pregnancy spread slowly and with a sort of magic aura attached to it, both in Faery and on Earth. Either community considered carefully political implications and social pros and cons, but suspended their considerations to the completion of the endeavour. </p>
<p>Alia and Eric, oblivious to external interests, tried to build their life together learning day by day how to face each other wishes and needs. It was not easy nor predictable. However they pushed and pulled, yelled and whispered. But mostly loved. Some days even hated, but in a fleeting and rootless way that ended preferably in a screwing session.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“How many days?” asked Eric curtly.</p>
<p>“Three,” said Alia. “Maybe four, considering traveling time.”</p>
<p>Eric watched her sideways continuing to browse through the last messages in his hand-held.</p>
<p>“I will have Dillon’s guards and Adrianne’s watching over me,” she added.</p>
<p>“Are you planning to deliver in Wyoming, lover?”</p>
<p>“It’s just a few days. Ludwig said that—”</p>
<p>“Has she many precedents to draw upon her knowledge in this kind of pregnancy?” Eric interjected.</p>
<p>“Eric!”</p>
<p>He folded the terminal and looked at her. “You haven’t yet said why you want to go.”</p>
<p>“It’s a very important meeting! What else should I say? Water fairies have been involved with my attacks and Dillon wants to see if there’s still someone in their fold who—”</p>
<p>“Rhiannon would be enough to that end.”</p>
<p>Alia stomped her feet and narrowed her eyes on him. “If you think to boss me around, you’re deluding yourself.”</p>
<p>“If you think to lie to me, it’s you who’re sorely mistaken, fae.”</p>
<p>Alia stood up and went to the window facing the sunset beyond the red-tinted waters of the lake. She had joined him in his study as soon as he had awaken, but had not considered that when he did not find her in bed with him his temper would flare for nothing.</p>
<p>“I’m not lying to you,” she whispered letting her gaze wander up in the sky. She had laid on the deck for a couple of hours absorbing the last rays of the day, bud did not feel recharged nor rested. Sleeping, in fact, had become more a wrestling with her swollen belly than a satisfactory repose. </p>
<p>“Then, what’s this craze with weres or with your kin? Seems you cannot relax for a few hours without planning another trip somewhere to investigate, research, training and so on.”</p>
<p>“It’s nothing. It’s what I do everyday,” she said. Then added, “Yesterday Karin refused to spar with me.”</p>
<p>“So what? You’re about to deliver, it’s just reasonable to stop taking kicks and shoves, or attempting to punch someone, or jump or—” Eric stopped abruptly as her emotions pooled in his belly. “What?”</p>
<p>“I’m not sick! I’m perfectly able to do anything.”</p>
<p>“You’re worried.” He crossed the room and reached out for her. She stood by the window pretending to watch something outside, unyielding. “Alia…”</p>
<p>“I never lied to you.”</p>
<p>“Mmm.” He hugged her from behind and whispered to her ear, “Tell me what’s the matter, then.”</p>
<p>“Everybody treats me as if the only thing I should do in life is to hold these two inside,” she snapped. “I’m just an incubator!”</p>
<p>“Hush.” He turned her sideways and tightened his embrace. “You’re many things at once. A wonderful fairy with a lot of qualities. My companion. A soon-to-be mother. Whoever else you’ll choose to be but, now, you should focus on one task.”</p>
<p>Alia nodded and buried her face in his chest, inhaling his smell. It was soothing. At once centred and lightened by his presence she let his mind inside.</p>
<p>“Wyoming has something from Nevada. It seems he freed some weres from some… places, and offered them for interviewing,” she said finally.</p>
<p>“That’s why you asked Dillon to hold the meeting in Wyoming, mmm?”</p>
<p>“I can’t go to Faery, now.”</p>
<p>“Yes, and you needed an excuse to be in Wyoming,” he concluded. “Why didn’t you tell so from the beginning?”</p>
<p>Alia lifted her face and watched him puzzled. “I’ve always handled these assignments by myself. Desmond gave—”</p>
<p>“You don’t work with Cataliades any more,” Eric interjected. “Now, you work for yourself, for us. But I’ll appreciate to know your plans.” He lifted a brow and waited for her remark.</p>
<p>“Preston. I need to see him and we agreed to meet there, had Dillon accepted to hold the meeting in Wyoming.”</p>
<p>“Dillon just asked for an encounter… in Wyoming,” said Eric. “Now that you are the only Brigant on Earth, he’d like to formalise your status and mention it in an addendum to our marriage agreement.”</p>
<p>“You didn’t tell me nothing about it, I would—”</p>
<p>“Fae, I was just reading the message Cataliades had forwarded when you came this evening.”</p>
<p>“Ah.” Alia smiled. “I would have told you. In time. It was a surprise.”</p>
<p>“Mmm, a surprise?”</p>
<p>“I asked Preston to keep his ears open. He travels a lot for fairy business, and meets daemons and vampires… hears a lot of things…”</p>
<p>The vampire nodded. Then lifted the fae and sat her down over the windowsill. “My wonderful humpback whale! How could you think that I wanted to limit you in any way? You’re so good at meddling and scheming I might think you’re a born-vampire.”</p>
<p>“Hey, calm down. Puppies get too excited if you are close and enthusiastic. Ouch! They’ve just pushed my bladder.”</p>
<p>Eric put his hands over her belly caressing it with circular moves; each fondle relaxing the babies, lulling them to sleep. Their tiny, chaotic minds found a warm corner to curl and dream.</p>
<p>“Wonderful…” she murmured. “So, are you going to Wyoming to meet Dillon?”</p>
<p>“I’m going to Wyoming to accompany a stubborn whale who thinks I forgot how wonderful she is.”</p>
<p>Alia had lost tension and worries under his massage and leant on him sideways, clasping her hands over his. She forgot to tell him what Preston had found in New Jersey about Missouri, or what Rhiannon had told her about some daemons from Scotland. What was important a minute ago became trivial and dull after he touched her with his mind, his hands, his whispers. But there would be time to tell him everything, now she preferred to be cuddled in his arms and rest. Finally at peace.</p>
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<a name="section0050"><h2>50. Chapter 50</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This journey is over for me and I want to thank you for having followed me till the end. However, vampires and fairies have not satisfied my paranormal curiosity, and I’ll continue to explore other worlds where humans are not alone. If anyone is interested in reading something in a few months time, let me know through PM. <br/>Be fine and enjoy life,<br/>a fairy with a wand</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Epilogue</p>
<p>
  <em>(fifty-two years after)</em>
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<p> </p>
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<p>Non est ad astra mollis e terris via.</p>
<p>(There is no easy way from earth to the stars)</p>
<p>
  <em>Lucius Annaeus Seneca</em>
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<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>When the lawyer Desmond Cataliades decided to retire, his career as the Ancient Pythoness’ agent of destiny had already ended long time before. Though, he liked to visit the old vampiress every now and then.</p>
<p>It was not a friendship. And sometimes it was not even that enjoyable. It was like visiting an old crazy relative who lived in a personal world carved out of nightmarish paintings. Some times conversations had coherence and purpose, other times it was like listening to radiation from outer space. Cold, cryptic, dangerous. But mostly useless.</p>
<p>That night he reached her abode in Lake Cross, west of Shreveport, with a flycar. The little jump from the hovering car to the jetty reminded him why retirement had been a timely choice.</p>
<p>The Ancient One was waiting for him a few metres ahead. Smiling. The fact that she did it without showing teeth was a sign of kindness and respect. It was some time, in fact, that the Pythia had ceased to enjoy his embarrassments. Or, at least, so she pretended. Cataliades had never been able to read the vampiress or even just understand her behaviours. He had learnt to appreciate her, though.</p>
<p>“Desmond,” she grunted. The sound scratched the air and dissipated without leaving signs of its passage. “It is some time you don’t visit me. I feel neglected.”</p>
<p>“Pythia,” the daemon bowed lightly and reached her sauntering on the pier and up the stairs to the house. “If I did not know better, I would think you’re trying to flatter me.”</p>
<p>“You look younger and fresher, I may consider…”Her words trailed off as she turned to enter the house.</p>
<p>“You don’t need to seduce me to have me at your feet, Pythoness.”Cataliades played along and wondered how it had started this routine of gentle banter and veiled sexual innuendos.</p>
<p>“Love suits you, it seems,”carried on the vampiress leading him all the way to the conservatory. It was a huge orangery with fruit trees and delicately scented flowers. Humidity was low and the night coolness caressed pleasantly the daemon’s skin. It was not lost on the guest that the Pythoness played the perfect hostess for a purpose.</p>
<p>“You lost weight and your hair is luscious,”continued the vampiress sitting on a comfy chair and inviting the daemon to sit down. “Even your goatee is sexy.”</p>
<p>Cataliades sat awkwardly, wondering where the sybil was going. Words like <em>love</em> and <em>sexy</em> in her mouth assumed a weird connotation.</p>
<p>“It was time you took a lover,”she concluded showing him her fangs’ tips.</p>
<p>The daemon stilled, not knowing if the lightness of her words meant mockery or threat. Sweat started to gather on his forehead and he felt the loss of his prosperous belly as an embarrassing nakedness.</p>
<p>“Desmond! Don’t make it so easy,” she said after a calculated pause. “I’m just congratulating for the love just bloomed between you and… What is his name? Priam…?”</p>
<p>“Kotsonis,” completed the daemon. “And it’s almost two years that we date.”</p>
<p>“Mmm,”the sound was more a contained groan than a cheerful humming. “But it’s only a month that he moved to your house.”</p>
<p>Cataliades tried to smile, and failed.</p>
<p>The vampiress waved a hand as to dismiss the subject, and stilled in that unsettling way vampires did when they wanted to annoy. At least, it was annoying for the daemon, but as lawyer he had learned and mastered the art of waiting for his counterpart’s move pretending to be uninterested. So he waited.</p>
<p>“Desmond,” the sybil started after some minutes, “how about your godchild?”</p>
<p>It was some time she did not touch that issue, the daemon considered before answering. The subject seemed to have left her visions or her interest since long time, indeed.</p>
<p>“She’s currently in Faery, Pythia. Doing fairy business, I think.”</p>
<p>“I know that.”</p>
<p>“She’s expected to come back in a few days.” The vampiress was not so unconcerned as she pretended, the daemon noted, and waited. It was a tactic that did not pay much with her, but nonetheless he persisted. Some times he had learned something from the way she framed her questions.</p>
<p>“It’s quite tedious her habit to fly to Faery every time she’s in a fight with her husband.”</p>
<p>The daemon smiled. It was true that Alia resorted to that stratagem when Northman did not concede, but it was also true that her friendship with the dae-fae had grown stronger for both of them, and they enjoyed to spend time together. Chatting and training, it seemed.</p>
<p>“And Northman may be done with her sooner than she thinks,” she added following the daemon’s silence.</p>
<p>“Possibly,”admitted Cataliades. “Only it doesn’t seem the case. Yet.”It was true, however, that the vampire appeared less and less conceding to his whimsical wife. Their squabble over the twins’ decision to leave Earth for a forsaken asteroid on the Belt had turned more serious than it had appeared at the time.</p>
<p>It had happened more than twenty years ago. The twins had been almost thirty years old and uncontrollable, as age dictated. Their education had been easier and deeper than that of turned vampires as their appetites and drives had been trained since a tender age. Yet, they needed to explore their limits and Alia had been overprotective, be for the HumanFirst killing spree (which had lasted for some fifteen years after their birth), be for the underground conflict that opposed the Moshup clan to Amun and Zeus clans since she exposed Missouri’s role as agent provocateur. Further, fears about unexpected fae or dae quirks (which never appeared) added up to her zealous care. Their children were full-blooded vampires, without telepathy or other gifts. Strong. Overbearing. And stubborn.</p>
<p>Northman had backed his sons’ dreams and organised their voyage to the distant rock, where they had built a cutting-edge frontier station for further exploration of the solar system. After ten years the station (dubbed <em>Piraeus</em>) had become one of the most lucrative shipyard beyond <em>Moon Base</em> and <em>Mars Station I.</em></p>
<p>“And I heard she’s more interested in funding her research labs than being the first wife.”The vampiress’ eyes were on him, but Cataliades smiled meekly, still waiting for the true subject to surface.</p>
<p>“The <em>Ravenscroft Clinics</em> are doing a very important job unfolding secrets of vampire and fairy DNA, now even dae’s,”confirmed the daemon. Indeed, those labs were becoming too curious and resourceful and some daemons, pillars of the community, had began to question the opportunity of that research. Then, Alia had asked her godfather to sponsor her scientific enterprise inside the dae society offering to share the results.</p>
<p>It had worked till a point. Scenarios emerging from those labs were incredible but scaring. Sometimes even for Cataliades, he had to admit. At the moment, though, it was a useless thought and he went back to enjoying the vampiress’ attempts to break the news she was circling around. Breaking a news and asking something. That was the way she worked.</p>
<p>A handmaid had slid into the conservatory, almost unnoticed, and left a tray with tea and biscuits for the daemon and a pitcher of blood for the vampiress. It was a nice habit his hostess had inaugurated long before, and sweets were always excellent. Cataliades enjoyed that little gastronomic vice silently.</p>
<p>When only a few crumbs were on the plate he sipped his lukewarm tea, smiling at the idea that his lover would have found distasteful to let cooling tea before drinking it. Hot and bitter, that was how Priam liked it. Another smile appeared in Cataliades’ face, and he felt somehow foolish. Luckily the vampiress was not telepathic, but she interrupted his line of thought.</p>
<p>“And what about the twins?”</p>
<p>“Twins?” he asked absentmindedly, then wondered if that was finally the topic the Pythoness had wanted to speak about since the beginning.</p>
<p>“Northman’s doppelgängers,” said the vampiress locking her veiled eyes on his. “I heard one them took a human lover.”</p>
<p>Cataliades pursed his lips, trying to stifle a smile. “So did I.”</p>
<p>“Oh, Desmond,” she said with a snort only who knew her well could understand. Impatience, veined with a twisted appreciation. “Maybe, I preferred when you feared me all the time. After all, it’s long time I don’t taste a dae…”</p>
<p>Cataliades nodded. “Then I suggest a tender, younger daemon. Old devils won’t sit good on your stomach.” A shiver along his back told him his nonchalance had no roots, though.</p>
<p>“So, is it true…?”</p>
<p>“Your visions?”countered the daemon. “Is something in there?”</p>
<p>“My visions, Desmond, come without a timestamp,”answered the vampiresshastily, to the daemon’s surprise. “Therefore I don’t know if what I see is tomorrow or in a far future. So, has it happened already?”</p>
<p>“Yes. But the woman lost her child on the tenth week.”</p>
<p>The vampiress seemed touched by the news in a way Cataliades would not have believed, were not in front of him her sagging countenance. She lost all her good natured behaviour as a blanket of sadness wrapped her nervous body.</p>
<p>The Pythoness went in downtown.</p>
<p>When she resurfaced from the pit she had stumbled into, the vampiress had embraced again the mantle of the seer. It was not light nor joyful.</p>
<p>Cataliades felt for her and would have done something to ease her burden, if only had known what to do.</p>
<p>After a long silence, she spoke again. Her voice harsh and grating on the daemon’s nerves, as usual.</p>
<p>“Sometimes a butterfly is not enough.”</p>
<p>He nodded, even if he had not got the meaning. And wanted to offer her something to build upon. “But Alia has reached the fourteen week and is healthy. That’s why she went to Faery, this time.”</p>
<p>The Pythia turned and ran a hand on the daemon’s shoulder. It was the first time she ever touched him in a direct way. Very unvampirelike.</p>
<p>“Daemon, it’s a good news for the Northmans. But not enough for us all.”</p>
<p>“Alia has accepted Northman’s desire to move to Moon Base,” added Cataliades, “for a while.”</p>
<p>The air around the vampiress had cooled sensibly, and her growl sent another chill on the daemon’s guts. “Not enough.”</p>
<p>“She went to recruit some fairies for her field research on interracial breeding,”continued Cataliades.</p>
<p>The vampiress lowered her fangs with a hiss, then spoke, “Mmm. That’s a start.”</p>
<p>“A good start,”he reinforced, trying not to focus on her tusks.</p>
<p>“Desmond.” Her throat released the sound in a burst. “This time I need something less gentle than a butterfly. Maybe a daemon will do.”</p>
<p>Cataliades had not seen it arriving. And stilled. Then swallowed drily, fumbling to think something to say.</p>
<p>“And I think your lover will appreciate living up in the sky, on a rocky station or a ship.”</p>
<p>After some minutes of awkward silence, the vampiress emitted a rasping sound that made the daemon think of an old rusty saw cutting through a stone.</p>
<p>“Yes, I definitely prefer that version of you.”</p>
<p>Cataliades understood it had been a chuckle. The Pythoness’ version of it.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>***</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It was a warm, sweet night. Scented by all sorts of wildflowers crowding the clearing before the thick patch of trees that hid the portal. Bellflower, ironweed, chamomile, morning glory, thistle, petunias, and a hundred more. Colours were dulled by the cold moonlight, but their perfumes filled Eric’s nostrils making him savour the waiting of his fae as a light intoxication.</p>
<p>Bon Temps had long disappeared and Alia had bought a larger area around her portal, turning it into their private, sheltered playground. No structure marred the huge expanse of oak gum cypress trees, the large fish-thriving pond, the natural creeks crossing from west to south-east and the various verdant glades, occasional marshlands and spectacular lookouts. The prosperity of the land enhanced by the frequent passage of fairies and the magical ties that held the portal in place.</p>
<p>Alia had gone to Fairy a week earlier, almost two weeks in the fairy dimension, and was due to come back any time now. Eric had descended from their home, a stealthy dirigible hovering a thousand metres from the ground, and waited for her basking in the perfect wilderness she had created for their children a few decades back.</p>
<p>The portal shone and blurred, letting slip through the spicy perfume that announced Alia’s coming. When she came back, she always brought back a stronger, headier essence, as if the energy of her land accrued to her body as a thicker fragrance.</p>
<p>“Lover,” whispered Eric from the cypress tree he was leaning on, sheltered from the moonlight and the portal’s fading brightness.</p>
<p>“Vampire,” she breathed sliding into his arms. “It’s been too long.”</p>
<p>They held to each other and let their bond reassert itself, knitting its threads through their minds and bellies. The lives thriving inside her stirred, reached out, called.</p>
<p>“Those two are fine, I see.”</p>
<p>“Why shouldn’t they? They longed for your caresses and now you’re here,” said Alia. “It’s been too long.”</p>
<p>“Ludwig said they could do without my blood, being fairies.”</p>
<p>“Mmm.” The fae inhaled his scent, biting his nipple through the light fabric of his upper garment. “Could do without doesn’t mean they are better off without.”</p>
<p>“My thirsty tiny fairies,” he said flavouring the words and their implications. “And my big fae? Do you want anything?”</p>
<p>“Mmm,” she hummed. “I want you everywhere, filling me up, forgetting where I end and you begin.”</p>
<p>Eric smiled. Her most intense desires had registered during the pregnancies and the twins’ first five years, and every time she came back from a prolonged stay in Faery. It was a pull she did not oppose any longer, nor tried to direct into a gentle act. Her fairy arc had reached her zenith, freeing her strength and power. His blood, moreover, had added a few quirks to her fairyness.</p>
<p>Probably their second twins, a couple of fairy girls had announced the healer a month earlier, would have inherited Alia’s peculiar strain of fairyness. Besides, Cataliades had offered his gift. Something that more than fifty years ago, during her first pregnancy and the tense situation surrounding the event, had escaped the daemon. Now, they were considering it.</p>
<p>“And I have good news,” said Alia removing his shirt. “Rhiannon and one of her twins will come with us to Moon. She will study how to build a portal up there.”</p>
<p>“And… is she open to mating with a vampire?”</p>
<p>“Don’t be so blunt! No one would be forced to breed,” said Alia. “But if she, or the others, find someone of their liking…”</p>
<p>“How many others are coming?”</p>
<p>“Twelve females and three males, included Rhiannon’s child and Preston.” Alia had reached his trousers and was swiftly unfastening them. “How many vampires?”</p>
<p>“Two dozen, maybe more.”</p>
<p>Eric had reached behind her and was loosening her dress laces. She had long decided that fairy clothes were more comfortable and suited her best, and Eric had achieved a certain dexterity in freeing her from them.</p>
<p>“Russell?”</p>
<p>“At the end, I convinced him,” he said. “And Kainz, Aidan Harris, Klingemann, Ford—”</p>
<p>“Ford?”</p>
<p>“Mmm.” Eric had pushed his fae down to the blooming ground, and watched her long hair fanning over a bed of fragrant daisies. “I think he wants to get out of reach of his maker. You know, weres make for restive vampires.”</p>
<p>“Other clans joining in?”</p>
<p>“Two European clans and one from Asia,” answered the vampire after a while. “Hush, enough.” He covered a breast with a hand, and tightened his fingers around it. “From now on open your mouth only to taste me.”</p>
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